n
yl.v. I.
VfA"
'^i-
Plbrar^.
N THE CUSTODY Or TME
BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY.
SHELF N°
ADAIVIS
\ 3 0. \
io\.
t
THE WOEKS
OF
JOHN ADAMS.
y^
ytt^^myy^y -5^
B O S T O N
PWBLISHED BY L I TTLE . BROWN . ATSTD COMPANY.
THE
WORKS
OF
JOHN ADAMS,
SECOND PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
WITH
A LIFE OF THE AUTHOR,
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
BY
fflS GRANDSON
CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS.
VOL. IX.
BOSTON:
LITTLE, BROWN AND COMPANY.
1854.
v"^.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1854, by Ciiaelks C. Little and
James Brown, in tlic Clerk's office of tlie District Com-t of the District of Massachusetts.
EIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE:
STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY
II. O. ITOUGIITON ANI> r(i:MI'ANV.
CONTENTS OF VOLUME IX.
1799.
July
August
23, To O. WoLcoTT, Secketaky of the Treasury
24. T. Pickering, Secretary of State, to John Adams
27. To J. McHexry, Secretary of War .
1. To T. Pickering, Secretary op State
1. T. Pickering to John Adams
3. To T. Pickering, Secretary op State
4. To T. Pickering, Secretary of State
5. To B. Stoddert, Secretary of the Navy
5. To T. Pickering, Secretary of State
6. To T. Pickering, Secretary of State
8. To B. Stoddert, Secretary of the Navy
13. To T. Pickering, Secretary of State
14. To T. Pickering, Secretary of State
16. To T. Pickering, Secretary of State
23. To B. Stoddert, Secretary of the Navy
24. To T. Pickering, Secretary of State
29. To T. Pickering, Secretary of State
29. B. Stoddert, Secretary of the Navy, to John
Adams ......
PAGE
3
3
4
5
5
7
8
8
9
10
12
13
15
15
16
16
18
18
19
September 4. To B. Stoddert, (private)
9. T. Pickering, Secretary of State, to John Adams 21
9. C. Lee, Attorney-General, to T. Pickering, Secre-
tary OF State, 2 Sept. (inclosed) . . .21
11. T. Pickering, Secretary of State, to John Adams 23
a*
vi CONTENTS.
1799. PAGE
September 13. B. Stoddert, Secketary of the Navy, to John
Adams . . . . . .25
14. To B. Stoddert, Secretary of the Navy . . 29
16. To T. Pickering, Secretary of State . . 29
18. To J. McHenry, Secretary of War . . 30
18. O. Ellsworth to John Adams . . .31
19. To T. Pickering, Secretary of State . . 31
21. To T. Pickering, Secretary of State . . 33
21. To B. Stoddert, Secretary of the Navy . . 33
21. To the Heads of Department . . .34
22. To Chief Justice Ellsworth . . .34
23. To T. Pickering, Secretary of State . . 35
24. T. Pickering, Secretary of State, to John Adams 36
26. To B. Stoddert, Secretary of the Navy . . 37
October 5. O. Ellsworth to John Adams . . .37
6. C. Lee, Attorney-General, to John Adams . 38
16. To T. Pickering, Secretary of State . . 39
16. To B. Stoddert, Secretary of the Navy . . 39
18. To T. Pickering, Secretary of State . . 40
November 12. To T. Pickering, Secretary of State . . 41
15. To O. Wolcott, Secretary of the Treasury . 41
December 2. To A. J. Dallas . . . . .42
7. To T. Pickering, Secretary of State . . 42
Notes on some Observations of the Secretary
OF THE Treasury . . . . .43
24. To Tobias Lear . . . . .44
27. To Mrs. Washington . . . . .45
1800.
January 13. The Heads of Department to the President . 46
March 10. To Henry Ivnox . . . . . .46
10. To Benjamin Lincoln . . . . .46
31. To B. Stoddert, Secretary of the Navy . . 47
31. To J. McHenry, Secretary of War . . .48
CONTENTS. vii
1800. PAGE
April 8. Thomas Johnson to John Adams . . .48
11. To Thomas Johnson . . • . .49
23. To the Secretary of State and Heads of De-
partment . . . . . .50
May 6. J. McHenry, Secretary op War, to John Adams . 51
10. To T. Pickering, Secretary of State . . 53
12. T. Pickering, Secretary of State, to John Adams 54
12. To Timothy Pickering . . . .55
15. To J. McHenry, Secretary of War . . .56
16. To THE Attorney-General and the District-At-
torney OF Pennsylvania . . .56
17. To O. WoLcoTT, Secretary of the Treasury . 57
20. To the Heads of Department . . .57
20. The Heads of Department to the President . 59
21. To C. Lee, Secretary of State pro tem. . . 60
22. To Alexander Hamilton . . . .61
26. To W. S. Smith . . . . . .61
26. To Benjamin Stoddert . . . .62
26. B. Stoddert to John Adams . . . .62
June 20. To Alexander Hamilton . . . .63
July 11. To J. ISIarshall, Secretary of State . . 63
23. To B. Stoddert, Secretary of the Navy . . 64
25. To S. Dexter, Secretary of War . . .65
30. To J. Marshall, Secretary of State . .66
31. To J. Marshall, Secretary of State . . 66
31. To J. Marshall, Secretary OF State . .67
August 1. To J. ]\L4.rshall, Secretary of State . .68
2. To J. Marshall, Secretary of State . .69
3. To B. Stoddert, Secretary of the Navy . . 70
6. To O. Wolcott, Secretary of the Treasury . 71
7. To J. IVIarshall, Secretary of State . .71
7. To J. Marshall, Secretary of State . . 72
11. To J. Marshall, Secretary of State . . 73
VIU
1800.
August 12.
13.
13.
14.
26.
27.
27.
30.
September 4.
5.
9.
10.
18.
27.
30.
October 3.
4.
9.
November 8.
ft
10.
10.
11.
24.
December 19.
1801.
January 24.
26.
27.
31.
31.
i'ebruary 4.
CONTENTS.
To John Trumbull
To S. Dexter, Secretary of War
To J. JVIarshall, Secretary op State
To J. Marshall, Secretary of State
To J. ]VIarshall, Secretary of State
To O. Wolcott, Secretary of the Treasury
To Barnabas Bid well
To J. Marshall, Secretary of State
To J. Marshall, Secretary of State
To J. Marshall, Secretary of State
To J. Marshall, Secretary of State
To John Trumbull
To J. JMarshall, Secretary of State
To J. Marshall, Secretary of State
To S. Dexter, Secretary of War
To J. Marshall, Secretary of State
To 0. Wolcott, Secretary of the Treasury
To S. Dexter, Secretary of War
O. Wolcott, Secretary of the Treasury, to
John Adams ....
To O. Wolcott, Secretary of the Treasury
John Jay to John Adams (private)
O. Wolcott, Secretary of the Treasury, to
John Adams
To John Jay ....
To John Jay ....
To George Churchman and Jacob Lindley
To Elias Boudinot
To Kichard Stockton .
To J. Marshall, Secretary op State
To S. Dexter, Secretary of War
John Marshall to John Adams
PAGE
. 74
. 76
. 76
. 77
. 78
. 78
. 79
. 80
. 80
. 82
. 82
. 83
. 84
. 84
. 86
. 86
. 87
88
89
89
90
90
91
92
93
94
95
95
9G
CONTENTS.
IX
1801.
February 4. To John Marshall
4. To Joseph Ward
7. To Elbridge Gerry
10. To THE Secretary of State
March 28. Oliver Wolcott to John Adams
April 6. To Oliver Wolcott
PAGK
. 96
. 96
. 97
. 98
. 99
. 100
1797.
March
SPEECHES TO COXGEESS.
4. Inaugural Speech to both Houses of Congress . 105
May 16. Speech to both Houses of Congress . .111
Eeply to the Answer of the Senate . .119
Reply to the Answer of the House of Represent-
atives ...... 120
November 23. Speech to both Houses of Congress . .121
Reply to the Answer of the Senate . .126
Reply to the Answer of the House of Represent-
atives ...... 127
1798.
December 8.
Speech to both Houses of Congress . .128
Reply to the Answer of the Senate . .134
Reply to the Answer of the House of Represent-
atives
135
1799.
December 3.
Speech to both Houses op Congress . . 136
Reply to the Answer of the Senate . .. 140
Reply to the Answer of the House of Represent-
atives
141
23.
1800.
November 22.
Reply to the Address of the Senate on the Death
OF George Washington .... 142
Speech to both Houses of Congress . . 143
Reply to the Answer of the Senate . .147
ReplV to the Answer of the House of Represent-
atives
. 148
CONTENTS.
FAGB
1797.
May-
June
MESSAGES TO CONGRESS.
July
1798.
January
February
March
April
June
July
1799.
January
February
31. Message to the Senate, nominating Envoys to
France ...... 150
12. Message to both Houses of Congress, respecting
THE Territory of the Natchez . . . 151
23. Message to both Houses of Congress, on Affairs
with Algiers . . • . .152
3. Message to both Houses of Congress, communicat-
ing information respecting Spain . .154
8. Message to both Houses of Congress, announcing
- the Ratification of an Amendment of the Con-
stitution . . . . . .154
5. Message to both Houses of Congress, relative to
a French Privateer . . . ."155
5. Message to both Houses of Congress, transmit-
ting Despatches from France . . .156
19. Message to both Houses of Congress, transmit-
ting Despatches from France . . . 156
3. Message to both Houses of Congress, transmitting
Despatches from France .... 158
21. Message to both Houses of Congress, on the state
OF AFFAIRS "WITH FbANCE . . . 158
17. Message to the Senate, transmitting a Letter
FROM George "Washington . . . .159
8. Message to the House of Representatives, re-
specting certain acts of British Naval Offi-
cers ....... 159
Circular to the Commanders of Armed Vessels
OP the U. States, 29 December, 1798, (inclosed) . 160
28. Message to both Houses of Congress, transmit-
ting A French Decree, respecting neutral
sailors ...... 161
15. Message to the House of Representatives, re-
specting the suspension of a French Decree . 161
18. Message to the Senate, nominating an Envoy to
France . . • . . .161
CONTENTS.
XI
1799.
February
PAGE
25. IVIessage to the Senate, nominatdjg three Envoys
TO Fkance ...... 162
December 19. Message to both Houses op Congress, announcing
the Decease of George Washington . . 163
1800.
January G. IMessage to both Houses of Congress, transmit-
ting A Letter of Martha Washington . .164
14. IMessage to the House of Representatives, trans-
mitting A Letter of John Eandolph, Jr. _ . 165
1801.
March
21. Message to the Senate, transmitting a Report of
the Secretary of State .... 166
2. ]Message to the Senate, on the Convention with
France ...... 167
1797.
March
1798.
March
July
1799.
March
June
1800.
May
PROCLAMATIONS.
25. Proclamation for an extraordinary Session of
Congress ...... 168
23. Proclamation for a National Fast
. 169
13. Proclamation revoking the Exequaturs of the
French Consuls . . . . .170
6. Proclamation for a National Fast .
172
12. Proclamation concerning the Ls^surrection in
Pennsylvania . . . . ,174
26. Proclamation, opening the Trade with certain
Ports OF St. DoMENGO . . . .176
9. Proclamation, opening the Trade with other
Ports of St. Domingo . . . .177
21. Proclamation, granting Pardon to the Pennsyl-
vania Insurgents . . r . . . 1 78
1797.
August
1798.
April
ANSWERS TO ADDRESSES.
23. To the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 180
To the Mayor, Aldermen, and Citizens of the
City of Philadelphia .... 182
xii CONTENTS.
1798. PAGE
April 26, To the Citizens op Philadelphia, the District op
SOUTHWARK, AND THE NORTHERN LIBERTIES . 183
30. To THE Inhabitants op Providence, Khode Island 184
May 1. To the Inhabitants of Bridgeton, in the County
OP Cumberland, in the State of New Jersey . 185
2. To THE Citizens op Baltimore, and Baltimore
County, Maryland ..... 186
7. To the Young Men of the City of Philadelphia,
the district of southwark, and the northern
Liberties, Pennsylvania .... 187
7. To THE Inhabitants and Citizens op Boston, Mas-
sachusetts ...... 189
8. To the Inhabitants op the County of Lancaster,
Pennsylvania . . . . .190
8. To the Inhabitants of the County of Burlington,
New Jersey ...... 191
10. To the Inhabitants of the town op Hartford,
Connecticut ...... 192
12. To the Inhabitants op the Borough of IIarris-
burgh, Pennsylvania . . . .193
22. To the Young Men of Boston, Massachusetts . 194
28. To the Grand Jury for the County of Plymouth,
Massachusetts . . . ... 195
31. To THE Soldier Citizens of New Jersey . .196
June 2. To the Inhabitants of the town op Braintree,
Massachusetts . . . . .197
To THE Young ]\Ien op the City of New York .197
To the Inhabitants of Quincy, Massachusetts .199
2. To the Inhabitants of the town of Cambridge,
Massachusetts ..... 200
15. To the Legislature of Massachusetts . . 200
25. To the Inhabitants of Arlington and Sandgate,
Vermont ...... 202
29. To the Legislature op New Hampshire . . 203
To THE Students of Dickinson College, Pennsyl-
vania ....... 204
To the Students of New Jersey College . . 205
CONTENTS.
xiu
1 798. PAGE
To THE Governor and the Legislature op Con-
necticut . . . . . .207
To the Cincinnati of Rhode Island . . . 208
July 14. To THE Inhabitants of Dedham and other Towns
IN the County of Norfolk, IVIassachusetts . 209
To THE Inhabitants of Concord, Massachusetts . 210
To THE Students of Harvard University, in Mas-
sachusetts . . . . . .211
To THE Freemasons of the State of Maryland . 212
To the Inhabitants of Washington County, Mary-
land ....... 213
To the Inhabitants op the County op Middlesex,
Virginia ...... 214
To the Committee of the Militia of Botetourt,
Virginia . . . . . .215
August 11. To THE Inhabitants of Cincinnati and its Vicinity 215
13. To THE Inhabitants of Harrison County, Virginia 216
To THE Young Men of Richmond, Virginia . .217
To THE Inhabitants op Accomac County, Virginia 218
31. To THE Senate and Assembly of the State op New
York ....... 219
September 7, To the Boston Marine Society, Massachusetts . 220
15. To the Cincinnati op South Carolina . . 222
22. To THE Grand Jury of Dutchess County, New
York ... ... 223
26. To THE Grand Jury op Ulster County, New York 224
To THE Inhabitants op the Town op Newbern,
North Carolina ..... 225
26. To THE Sixth Brigade of the Third Division op
North Carolina ]\Iilitia .... 226
October 3. To the Grand Jurors op Hampshire County, ]Mas-
SACHUSETTS ...... 227
5. To THE Inhabitants of Machias, District ofIVIaine 227
11. To the Officers op the First Brigade, Third Divi-
sion OP Massachusetts Militia . . . 228
VOL. IX. b
XIV
CONTENTS.
1798.
October
1799.
April
1800.
June
July
August
1801.
March
PAGE
19. To THE Militia and Inhabitants of Guilford
County, North Carolina .... 229
31. To the Officers of the Third Division of Georgia
Militia ....... 230
3. To the Grand Jury of Morris County in New
Jersey . . . . . . .231
8. To the Citizens, Inhabitants of the Mississippi
Territory . . . . . .232
5. To the Inhabitants of the City of Washington . 233
11. To the Citizens of Alexandria . . . 233
1. To THE Corporation of New London, Connecticut 234
15. To THE Inhabitants of the County of Edgecombe,
North Carolina ..... 235
26. To the Senate and House of Representatives of
Massachusetts ..... 236
CORRESPONDENCE ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE BOSTON PATRIOT.
Preliminary Note
To the Printers of the Boston Patriot
. 239
. 241
The inadmissible Principles of the King of Eng-
land's Proclamation of October 16, 1807, con-
sidered . . . . . .312
1770.
August
1773.
GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE.
9. To Catharine IMacaulay
December 1 7. To James Warren
22. To James Warren
1774.
April
May
June
July
9. To James Warren .
14. To William Woodfall
25. To James Warren
23. To John Tudor .
. 331
. 333
. 334
. 336
. 337
. 338
. 340
CONTENTS.
XV
1774.
PAGE
July
25. Joseph Hawley to John Adams . . . 342
September
29. To William Tudor
. 346
December
12. To Edward Biddle
. 348
28. To James Burgh .
. 350
1775.
January
3. To James Warren
. 352
March
15. To James Warren
. 354
June
10. To Moses Gill
. 356
18. To Elbridge Gerry
. 357
To George Washington
. 359
July
29. To Josiah Quincy
. 360
November
5. To Elbridge Gerry
. 362
14. Joseph Hawley to John Adams
. 364
23. To James Otis ....
. 365
25. To Joseph Hawley
. 366
25. To Mrs. Mercy Warren
. 368
1776.
January
6. To George Washington
. 370
15. Samuel Adams to John Adams
. 371
April
29. To James Otis
. 374
May
18. R. H. Lee to John Adams
. 374
26. To James Sullivan
. 375
29. To Benjamin Highborn
. 378
30. To Samuel Cooper
. 381
June
1. To Isaac Smith .
. 382
2. To Henry Knox .
. 384
3. To Patrick Henry
. 386
4. To Hugh Hughes
. 388
4. To Richard Henry Lee
. 389
9. To William Gushing
. 390
12. To John Lowell .
. 392
12. To Oakes Angier
. 394
12. To Francis Dana
. 395
xvi
CONTENTS.
1776.
rAG£
June
14.
To Samuel Chase
. 396
16.
To James Warren
. 398
21.
To Zabdiel Adams
. 399
22.
To Benjamin Kent
. 401
22.
To Nathanael Greene .
. 402
22.
To Samuel H. Parsons .
. 405
23.
To John Sullivan
. 407
23.
To John Winthrop
. 409
24.
To William Tudor
. 411
24.
To Samuel Chase
. 412
July
1.
To Archibald Bullock
. 414
1.
To Samuel Chase
. 415
3.
To Mrs. Adams
. 417
9.
To Samuel Chase
. 420
10.
To Joseph Ward .
.422
18.
To Jonathan Mason
. 422
21.
To J. D. Sergeant
. 424
25.
To the Deputy Secretary of J
^Iassachusetts . 426
27.
To James Warren
. . . . 427
August
16.
To Francis Dana
. 429
19.
To Samuel H. Parsons .
. 431
21.
To Jonathan Mason
. 432
25.
To Joseph Hawley
. 433
29.
To William Tudor
. 436
Septembei
' 4.
To Samuel Cooper
. 439
8.
To James Warren
. . . . 440
8.
To Samuel Adams
. 441
16.
Samuel Adams to John Adams
. 441
14.
To Samuel Adams
. 443
30.
Samuel Adams to John Adams
. 446
1777.
January
9.
Samuel Adams to John Adams
. 448
CONTENTS.
xvii
1777.
PAGE
February
3. To James Warren
. 450
12. To James Warren
. 452
March
18. To James Warren
. 456
21. To John Avery, Junior
. 457
22. To William Tudor
. 459
April
8. To William Gordon
. 461
27. To James Warren
. 462
29. To James Warren
. 463
May
6. To James Warren
. 464
16. Thomas Jefferson to John Adams .
. 465
26. To Thomas Jefferson .
• •
• 466
October
1 7. B. Franklin to James Lovell
• •
. 468
December
6. To Elbridge Gerry
• •
. 469
24. To James Lovell
• •
. 471
1778.
February
8. To Benjamin Kush
•
. 472
November
27. To James Lovell
m m t
. 473
December
15. To Mrs. Warren
• • t
. 474
1779.
February
20. To James Lovell
• •
. 476
28. To Samuel Cooper
• •
. 478
June
13. James Lovell to John Adams
(confidential) .
. 480
September
10. To Elbridge Gerry
.
. 483
20. To Thomas McKean ,
.
. 484
27. James Lovell to John Adams
(confidential) .
. 486
28. James Lovell to John Adams
(confidential) .
. 489
29. Elbridge Gerry to John Adams
. 491
October
4. Henry Laurens to John Adams
. 496
17. To James Lovell
. 499
25. To James Lovell
. 501
25. To Henry Laurens
. 503
November
4. To Elbridge Gerry
. 505
4. To Benjamin Rush
. 507
6*
XVlll
CONTENTS.
1780.
September
23.
October
2.
1782.
June
17.
September
6.
November
17.
1783.
April
12.
November
4.
1784.
January-
14.
February
22.
March
24.
August
27.
November
4.
December
13.
1785.
February
25.
April
24.
27.
August
21.
September
6.
10.
25.
December
12.
1786.
February
3.
April
13.
May
26.
June
2.
1787.
January
27.
June
12.
September 3.
To Edmund Jenings
To Jonathan Jackson
To James Wakren
To James Warren
To Jonathan Jackson
To Arthur Lee
Samuel Adams to John Adams
Elbridge Gerry to John Adams
To A. M. Cerisier
To Charles Spener
To James Warren
To Francis Dana
To Mrs. Warren
The Abbe de Mably to John Adams
To Benjamin Waterhouse
To Samuel Adams
To John Jebb
To Arthur Lee .
To John Jebb
To John Jebb
E.. H. Lee to John Adams
To Count Sarsfield
Samuel Adams to John Adams
To Cotton Tufts
To Cotton Tufts
To Benjamin Highborn
To Philip Mazzei
K. H. Lee to John Adams
PAGE
. 509
. 510
. 511
. 513
. 514
. 517
. 519
. 521
.522
. 523
. 524
. 526
. 528
. 529
. 530
. 532
. 532
. 536
. 538
. 543
. 544
. 646
. 547
. 548
. 549
. 550
. 552
. 553
CONTENTS.
XIX
1787.
October
1788.
December
1789.
May
August
September
November
1790.
April
June
September
1791.
January
March
1797.
April
1799.
January
1800.
December
1801.
March
April
3. Arthur Lee to John Adams
2. To Benjamin Rush
3. To Thomas Brand-Hc>llis
20. To Richard Price
18. To Henry Marchant
30. To SiLVANUs Bourn
1 7. To James Sullivan
7. To Marston Watson
19. To Richard Price
18. To Benjamin Rush
1. To Alexander Jardine
1. To Thomas Brand-Hollis
11. To Thomas Brand-Hollis
13. To Thomas Welsh
23. To John Trumbull
10. To Hannah Adams
6. To Joseph Ward
3. To Henry Guest
3. To Dr. Ogden
28. To F. A. Vanderkemp
30. To Elbridge Gerry
11. Christopher Gadsden to John Adams
23. To Samuel Dexter
24. To Thomas Jefferson .
31. To Benjamin Stoddert
6. To THE Marquis de Lafayette
16. To Christopher Gadsden
PAGE
. 554
. 556 ,
. 557
. 558
. 559
. 561
. 562
. 562
. 563
. 565
. 667
. 568
. 569
. 571
. 572
. 574
. 574
. 575
. 576
. 576
. 577
. 578
. 580
. 581
. 582
. 583
. 584
XX
CONTENTS.
><^
1802.
PAGE
January
26. To Samuel A. Otis
• • •
. 585
November
30. To Thomas Truxtun
.
. 586
December
20. To Joshua Thomas, James Thacher, axd
William
Jackson
.
. 587
1804.
March
3. To F. A. Yanderkemp
• • •
. 588
1805.
February
5. To F. A. Vanderkemp
• • •
. 589
1807.
May
1. To Benjabiin Rush
• • •
. 591
11. To William Heath
• • , •
. 594
21. To Benjamin Rush
• • •
. 596
^
23. To Benjamust Rush
• • •
. 599
1808.
September
3. To Benjamin Rush
• • ■
. 600
27. To Benjamin Rush
. ' •
. 602
December
26. To J. B. Varnum
• • •
. 604
1809.
February
16. F. A. Yanderkemp
«
• •
. 608
March
11. To Skelton Jones
• • •
. 610
13. To Daniel Wright and
Erastus Lyman
. 613
April
12. To Benjamin Rush
. •
. 616
20. To Joseph Lyman
.
. 619
June
19. To Samuel Perley
• • •
. 621
December
15. To F. A. Vanderkemp
• • •
. 624
1810.
\
January
21. To Benjamin Rush
• • *
. 626
1811.
-
January
29. To David Sew all
• • *
. 627
February
9. To JosiAH QumcY
• • •
. 629
18. To JOSIAH QUINCY
• • *
. 633
August
28. To Benjamin Rush
• • •
. 635
APPENDIX,
A. Broken Hints, to be communicated to the Committee of Con-
gress FOR THE Massachusetts, by Joseph Hawley . 6 i i
OFFICIAL
LETTERS, MESSAGES,
AND
PUBLIC PAPERS,
CONTINUED.
VOL. IX.
PUBLIC PAPERS
CONTINUED.
TO O. WOLCOTT, SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.
Quincy, 23 July, 1799.
Sir, — Inclosed is a letter from Mr. Thaxter, relative to the
light-house on Gay Head. I shall soon send you a drawing, if
not a model, of an economical improvement of these lights, of
Mr. Cunnington, which appears to me, but I may be mistaken,
of greater importance than the great question, who shall be the
keeper of one of them.
T. PICKERING, SECRETARY OF STATE, TO JOHN ADAMS.
PhiladelpHa, 24 July, 1799.
Sir, — There is in the Aurora of this city an uninterrupted
stream of slander on the American government. I inclose the
paper of this morning. It is not the first time that the editor
has suggested, that you had asserted the influence of the British
government in affairs of our own, and insinuated that it was
obtained by bribery. The general readers of the Am-ora will
believe both. I shall give the paper to Mr. Rawle, and, if he
thinks it libellous, desire him to prosecute the editor.
I do not know a member concerned in the administration of
the aftairs of the United States, who would not indignantly
spurn at the idea of British influence ; and as to bribes, they
would disdain to attempt a vindication from the charge.
The article in the paper, marked 5, of an acknowledgment in
my writings, that in case of a war with Great Britain, a foreign
war is not the only one to be dreaded, probably refers to my
4 OFFICIAL.
letter of 12th September, 1795, to Mr. Monroe, in which, vindi-
cating our state of neutrality and the British treaty, and exhibit-
ing the evils to flow from a war with Great Britain, I say that
in that case " it would be happy for us if we could contemplate
only a foreign war, in which all hearts and hands might be
united."
The editor of the Aui'ora, William Duane, pretends that he is
an Ainerican citizen.^ saying that he was born in Vermont, but
was, when a child, taken back with his parents to Ireland, where
he was educated. But I understand the facts to be, that he
went from America prior to our revolution, remained in the
British dominions till after the peace, went to the British East
Indies, ^vhere he committed or was charged with some crime,
and returned to Great Britain, from whence, within three or
four years past, he came to this country to stir up sedition and
work other mischief. I presume, therefore, that he is really a
British subject, and, as an alien, liable to be banished from the
United States. He has lately set himself up to be the captain
of a company of volunteers, whose distinguishing badges-are a
plume of cock-neck feathers and a small black cockade with a
large eagle. He is doubtless a United Irishman, and the com-
pany is probably formed to oppose the authority of the govern-
ment; and in case of war and invasion by the French, to join
them.
I am, with great respect, &c.
Timothy Pickering.
TO J. MCHENRY, SECRETARY OF WAR.
Quincy, 27 July, 1799.
Sir, — I have received your letter of the 20th, and have no
objection to the plan you propose of raising a company of
cavalry. " Our means ! " ^ I never think of our means without
shuddering. All the declamations, as well as demonstrations,
of Trenchard and Gordon, Bolingbroke, Barnard and Walpole,
1 Mr. McHenry, speaking in his letter of the delay to raise six additional
companies of cavalry, says ;
"I have been influenced, also, to this delay by a desire to husband our means,
and guard against interrupting recruiting for the infantry."
In reality he had been stirred to act by a letter from Mr. Hamilton, shaping
the policy suggested. Hamilton's WoHs, vol. v. pp. 275, 27G.
OFFICIAL. 5
Hume, Burgh and Burke, rush upon my memory and frighten
me out of my wits. The system of debts and taxes is levelling
all governments in Europe, We have a career to run, to be
sure, and some time to pass before we arrive at the European
crisis ; but we must ultimately go the same way. There is no
practicable or imaginable expedient to escape it, that I can
conceive.
TO T. PICKERING, SECRETARY OF STATE,
Quincy, 1 August, 1799.
I have received your favor of the 24th of July, inclosing an
Aiirora of July 24th, imbued with rather more impudence than
is common to that paper. Is there any thing evil in the regions
of actuality or possibility, that the Aurora has not suggested of
me ? You may depend upon it, I disdain to attempt a vindi-
cation of myself against any of the lies of the Aurora, as much
as any man concerned in the administration of the affairs of the
United States. If IVIi'. Rawle does not think this paper libel-
lous, he is not fit for his office ; and if he does not prosecute it,
he will not do his duty.
The matchless effrontery of this Duane merits the execution
of the alien law. I am very willing to try its strength upon
him.
John Adams.
T. PICKERING TO JOHN ADAMS.
(Private.)
Philadelphia, 1 August, 1799.
Sir, — The day before yesterday I received from Mr, Charles
Hall, of Northumberland county, in this State, a letter concern-
ing a publication by Thomas Cooper, an Englishman, and a
connection of Dr. Priestley, addressed to the readers of the Sun-
bury and Northumberland Gazette, on the 29th of June.' This
1 This publication is found, together with all the proceedings in the trial to
■which it gave rise, in Wharton's State Trials during the Administrations of
Washington and Adams, a work of great value to the history of that period.
6 OFFICIAL.
address has been republished in the Aurora of July 12th, which
I now inclose.
By Mr. Hall's information, Cooper was a barrister in England,
and, like Dr. Priestley, a chemist, and a warm opposition man.
Dr. Priestley was at the democratic assembly on the 4th of July,
at Northumberland. But what is of most consequence, and
demonstrates the Doctor's want of decency, being an alien, his
discontented and turbulent spirit, that will never be quiet under
the freest government on earth, is " his industry in getting Mr.
Cooper's address printed in handbills, and distributed." " This,"
Mr. Hall adds, " is a circumstance capable of the fullest proof."
Cooper has taken care to get himself admitted to citizenship.
I am sorry for it ; for those who are desirous of maintaining our
internal tranquillity must wish them both removed from the
United States.
It is near a year since you authorized the expulsion of General
Collot and one Schweitzer. Colonel Mentges, who was engaged
(while I was at Trenton) in getting information of Schweitzer's
names and conduct, kept me long in suspense until at length he
informed me that General Serrurier was in the country in dis-
guise. I then thought it best not to give an alarm to him by
arresting the other two. But after months of suspense, while
inquuy was making, I was satisfied the information concerning
Serrurier was groundless. Then so many months had elapsed,
and the session of Congress commenced, when other business
pressed, the pursuit of these aliens was overlooked. Colonel
Mentges now informs me that Schweitzer is about to embark
for Hamburgh ; but Collot remains, and is deemed as much as
ever disposed to do all the mischief in his power. He remains
a prisoner of war to the British ; and it would seem desirable to
compel him to place himself under their jurisdiction, where he
could do no harm.
M. Letombe not only exercises those services, which, on the
withdrawing of his exequatur, he requested permission to render
to his fellow-citizens in this country, but assumes and uses the
title of Consul- General of the French Republic, just as he did
formerly. He held the purse-strings of the republic in this
country, and paid the bribes ordered by the French Minister
Adet ; the minister being gone, he is probably vested with pow-
ers adequate to the object. With much softness of manners, he
OFFICIAL. 7
is capable of submitting to, and doing, any thing corruptly which
his government should direct.
The reiterated observations, that the alien law remains a dead
letter, have induced me in this manner to bring the subject
under your notice ; and, waiting the expression of your will, I
remain, most respectfully, yours, &c.
Timothy Pickering.
P. S. A prosecution against Duane, editor of the Aurora,
has been instituted, on the charge of English secret-service
money distributed in the United States ; and I have desired JNIr.
Rawle to examine his newspaper and to institute new prosecu-
tions as often as he offends. This, I hope, will meet with your
approbation.
TO T. PICKERING, SECRETARY OF STATE.
Quincy, 3 August, 1799.
Sir, — I have received a long letter from Mr. Gerry of the
24th of July, with papers inclosed, numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5,
besides another paper of extracts of letters. I inclose extracts
of his letter, together with all the numbers, and his paper of
extracts. These numbers and last extracts I pray you to return
to me, when you have made all the uses of them you wish.
These papers, I think, will convince you as they have me,
of three points.
1. That Mr. Gerry's stay in France, after the receipt of your
letter by Mr. Humphreys, and especially after the publication
of the despatches, was not gratuitous, but of indispensable and
unavoidable necessity under the paws of arbitrary power, and
therefore that his salary ought to be allowed him according to
his account.
2. That Mr. Gerry ought not to be charged with the ships'
stores, or any part of them. I am ashamed to make any
remarks on this head, and shall not do it unless driven to the
necessity of it. If the necessities of our country require that
we should order our ambassadors to take passages in small
vessels, with all the sea captains and mariners that can be col-
lected, I think a generous provision of articles in case of sickness
and putrid fevers ought not to be charged to the ambassador.
8 OFFICIAL.
3. That the guilders ought not to be charged at forty cents.
This point, however, I may mistake. I should be obliged to
you for information. I wish right may be done according to
law at the time the debt was contracted. Upon the whole, it
is my opinion that Mr. Gerry's account, as stated by himself,
ought to be allowed.!
I am. Sir, with all due respect, &c.
John Adams.
TO T. PICKERING, SECRETARY OF STATE.
Quincy, 4 August, 1799.
Sir, — The inclosed protest and certificates I received last
night, with the letter from Captain Ebenezer Giles, late com'
mander of the schooner Betsey. This gentleman made me a
visit some weeks ago, to complain to me in person of the horrid
treatment he received from the commander of the ship Daphne,
a British vessel of war. He has now sent me the papers, and
expects that government will espouse his cause. I think the
papers should be communicated to Mr. Liston, and sent to Mr.
King.2 There is a very sour leaven of malevolence in many
English and in many American minds against each other, which
has given and will continue to give trouble to both govern-
ments ; but by patience and perseverance I hope we shall suc-
ceed in wearing it out, and in bringing the people on both sides
to treat each other like friends.
TO B. STODDERT, SECRETARY OF THE NAVY.
Quincy, 5 August, 1799.
Your two letters of the 29th, and one of the 30th July, are
before me. I know not who are meant by G. and C. in Cap-
1 Mr. Adams's interference was necessary to check the petty vexations to
which Mr. Pickering's hostility was subjecting Mr. Gerry. It was not, however,
effective until Mr. Marshall came into office. Austin's Life of Gerry, vol. ii.
p. 277, note.
2 Mr. Pickering replied on the 16th by transmitting a letter, written by him
to the complainant, in which he quoted Captain Truxtun's statement of the
transaction to prove that Captain Giles deserved the beating he got on board
of the English frigate. He therefore declined making any apjilication to Mr.
Liston.
OFFICIAL. 9
tain Perry's letter ; but I think there ought to be some inquiry
into the justice of his insinuations. I fear that the officers and
crew of the General Greene were too long on shore at the Ha-
vana, and there caught the infection which has obliged him to
leave his station and bury so many. The news, however, of
the politeness and friendship of the governor and admiral is not
the less pleasing. I return you Captain Perry's letter. Although
I am very solicitous to strike some strokes in Europe for the
reasons detailed in your letter proposing the expedition, yet I
feel the whole force of the importance of deciding all things in
the West Indies, if possible, and therefore shall consent to the
alteration you propose, if you continue to think it necessary.
There is one alteration in our policy, which appears to me
indispensable. Instead of sending the prisoners we take, back
into Guadaloupe, there to embark again in the first privateer,
we must send them all to the United States, or allow them to
work and fight on board our ships. At least, if any are returned,
their written parole ought to be taken, that they will not serve
until exchanged. One suggestion more. I like your plan of
employing all om* great frigates on separate stations. I have
more ideas in my head on this subject than I am willing to
commit to wnriting. One idea more. I think we must have
Bermuda sloops, Virginia pilot boats, or Marblehead schooners,
or whaleboats, in one word, some very light small fast-sailing
vessels, furnished with oars as well as sails, to attend our fri-
gates, and pursue the French pirates in among their own rocks
and shoals to their utter destruction. Talbot's unwarrantable
suspicion of your want of confidence in him shall never be any
disadvantage to you. Indeed, I believe I ought not to have
let you see that anxious expression of a brave man. I know
his opinion of you to be very high as a man of talents and
business.
TO T. PICKERING, SECRETARY OF STATE.
Qiiincy, 5 August, 1799,
I have received your favor of July 80th, inclosing Mr. King's
letter of 5th June, which I return. There is not a question in
10 OFFICIAL.
mathematics or physics, not the square of the circle or the uni-
versal menstruum, which gives me less solicitude or inquietude
than the negotiations with Russia and the Porte. Mr. King's
official assurances induced me to nominate the missions, and if
there has been any thing hasty in the business, it was Mr. King's
haste. I know that both Russia and the Porte have as much
interest in the connections proposed, as we have, and that the
stiff and stately formalities about it are exactly such as France
has practised upon us these twenty years. The object is to
assume the air of granting favors, when they receive them, and
to make the American government and people believe they are
not yet independent and can do nothing of themselves. If
we are retarded at all, it will be owing to the artifices of inter-
meddlers, and instead of having one farthing of money the less
to pay, I know it will cost us more.
TO T. PICKERING, SECRETARY OF STATE.
Quincy, 6 August, 1799.
Sir, — I received late last evening your favor of the 31st of
July, inclosing a triplicate of Mr. Murray's letter of the 17th of
May, and a copy, certified by Mr. Murray, on the 18th of May,
of a letter of Charles Maurice Talleyrand, dated Paris, le 23°
Floreal de I'an 7 de la Republique Fran§aise une et indivisible.
Sovereign to sovereign, and minister to minister, is a maxim
in the cabinets of Europe, and although neither the President
of the United States, nor the executive Directory, are sovereigns
in their countries, the same relations exist between them and
their ministers, and, therefore, the reason of the maxim is appli-
cable to them. It is far below the dignity of the President of
the United States to take any notice of Talleyrand's impertinent
regrets, and insinuations of superfluities.^ You or Mr. Murray
1 In transmitting these papers, Mr. Pickering had remarked ; —
" The answer, I observe, does not exactly conform to the terms used in the
instructions to M. Murray, and which he repeated in his letter of May 5th to
the minister. But Mr. Talleyrand does not forget the common practice of his
government, to drop a reproach or insult while making amicable professions. It
was certainly not necessary for him to insinuate that the President of the United
States was wasting many montlis of precious time for ' the simple confii-mation,'
that if new envoys were sent they would be received."
OFFICIAL. 11
may answer them as you please in your correspondence with
one another, or with the French minister. 1 will say to you,
however, that I consider this letter as the most authentic intel-
ligence yet received in America of the successes of the coalition.
That the design is insidious and hostile at heart, I Avill not say.i
Time will tell the truth. Meantime, I dread no longer their
diplomatic skill. I have seen it, and felt it, and been the victim
of it these twenty-one years. But the charm is dissolved. Their
magic is at an end in America. Still, they shall find, as long as
I am in office, candor, integrity, and, as far as there can be any
confidence or safety, a pacific and friendly disposition. If the
spirit of exterminating vengeance ever arises, it shall be conjured
up by them, not me. In this spirit I shall pursue the nego-
tiation, and I expect 2 the cooperation of the heads of depart-
ments. Our operations and preparations by sea and land are
not to be relaxed in the smallest degree. On the contrary, I
wish them to be animated with fresh energy. St. Domingo and
the Isle of France, and all other parts of the French dominions,
are to be treated in the same manner as if no negotiation was
going on. These preliminaries recollected, I pray you to Jose
no time in conveying to Governor Davie his commission, and
to the Chief Justice and his Excellency, copies of these letters
from Mr. Murray and Talleyrand, with a request that, laying
aside all other employments, they make immediate preparations
for embarking. Whether together or asunder, from a northern,
a southern, or a middle port, I leave to them. I am willing
to send Truxtun, or Barry, or Talbot, with them ; consult the
Secretary of the Navy and heads of department on this point.
Although I have little confidence in the issue of this business, I
wish to delay nothing, to omit nothing.
The principal points, indeed, all the points of the negotiation,
were so minutely considered and approved by me and all the
heads of department, before I left Philadelphia, that nothing
remains but to put them into form and dress. This service I
pray you to perform as promptly as possible. Lay your draught
before the heads of department, receive their corrections, if
* So in the copy-book. IVlr. Gibbs in his work has the word deny, and prints
the sentence in small capitals. Memoirs of the Fed. Adm. vol. ii. p. 250.
• - Printed, request, by ]Mr. Gibbs. There are other variations of less conse-
quence.
12 OFFICIAL.
they shall judge any to be necessary, and send them to me as
soon as possible. My opinions and determinations on these
subjects are so well made up, at least to my own satisfaction,
that not many hours will be necessary for me to give you my
ultimate sentiments concerning the matter or form of the in-
structions to be given to the envoys.^
I have the honor, &c.
John Adams.
TO B. STODDERT, SECRETARY OF THE NAVY.
Quincy, 8 August, 1799.
Sir, — I received last night your favor of the 2d of this
month. I am sincerely sorry for the resignation of Captain
Truxtun. Although you have not explained to me his motives,
I presume the decision, which gave rise to them, was founded
in principles of sound policy and eternal justice, as it was made
upon honor and with conscientious deliberation. If it were no\v
to be made, it would be the same, though my son or my father
were in the place of Captain Truxtun. I have no more to say.
If we lose Captain Truxtun 2, we shall soon regain Captain
Dale. Meantime I am very desirous that Captain Decatur
should take the Constellation. If, however, he prefers the mer-
chants' frigate, as you call her, I will not urge him from his
bias. Of Captain Barron I know very little, but repose myself
with great confidence upon your judgment. I now request of
you that Barry and Talbot may be separated. I have reasons
for this, which it is unnecessary to detail. Not from any mis-
understanding or dislike between them that I know of or
suspect, but it is best the great frigates should have separate
stations. . 5
1 This letter is remarkable as containing a summary of the President's policy
on tliis point, so sharply contested by his three cabinet officers ; a policy from
which the result will show him not to haA'e varied in any essential particular
from beginning to end.
'■^ Captain Truxtun did not resign. He served throughout the period of this
administi'ation, and was edged out rather than resigned, in 1802. A brief notice
of his lite is given in Mr. Cooper's History of (he Navy, vol. i. p. 354, note. A
characteristic letter upon the causes of his quitting the service is found in
Hamilton's Works, vol. vi. pp. 533-535.
i
OFFICIAL. 13
TO T. PICKERING, SECRETARY OF STATE.
Quincy, 13 August, 1799.
And now, Sir, what shall I say to you on the subject of "libels
and satires? Lawless things, indeed!" I have received your
private letter of the 1st of this month,^ and considered the sub-
ject of it as fully as the pressure of other business of more
importance would allow me time to do. Of Priestley and
Cooper I will say no more at present than to relate to you two
facts.
Anecdote first. Dr. Priestley's old friend, and my old acquaint-
ance, Mr. Benjamin Vaughan, the celebrated M. P., soon after
his arrival in Boston, came up to Quincy with his lady on a
visit to us, who had visited his family in London. I was absent.
They dined with Mrs. Adams, and in the course of conversation
Mr. Vaughan told her that Mr. Cooper was a rash man, and
had led Dr. Priestley into all his errors in England, and he feared
would lead him into others in America.
Anecdote the second. At the time when we were inquiring
for an agent to conduct the affairs of the United States before
the commissioners at Philadelphia, Mr. Cooper wrote to me a
solicitation for that appointment, and Dr. Priestley wrote me a
letter, strongly recommending him. Both made apologies for
his reputation as a democrat, and gave intimation of a reforma-
tion. I wondered that either could think it possible that the
people of the United States could be satisfied or contented to
intrust interests of such magnitude to an Englishman, or any
other foreigner. I wondered that either should think it com-
patible with my duty, to prefer a stranger to the great number
of able natives, who wished for this trust. But so it was. As
it has been, from the beginning, a rule not to answer letters of
solicitation or recommendation for offices, I never answered
either. Mr. Read was appointed, and the disappointed candi-
date is now, it seems, indulging his revenge. A meaner, a more
artful, or a more malicious libel has not appeared. As far as it
alludes to me, I despise it ; but I have no doubt it is a libel
against the whole government, and as such ought to be prose-
1 See page 5.
VOL. IX. 2
14 OFFICIAL.
cuted.i I do not think it wise to execute the alien law against
poor Priestley at present. He is as weak as water, as unstable
as Reuben, or the wind. His influence is not an atom in the
world.
Having long possessed evidence the most satisfactory to my
mind, that Collot is a pernicious and malicious intriguer, I have
been always ready and willing to execute the alien law upon
him. We are now about to enter on a negotiation with France,
but this is no objection against expelling from this country such
an alien as he is. On the contrary, it is more necessary to
remove such an instrument of mischief from among our people,
for his whole time will be employed in exciting corrupt divisions,
whether he can succeed or not. As to Letombe, if you can
prove "that he paid the bribes ordered by the French Minister,
Adet," or any thing like it, he ought to be sent away too. But
perhaps it would be better to signify that it is expected that he
go, than to order him out at first by proclamation. There is a
respect due to public commissions, which I should wish to pre-
serve as far as may be consistent with safety.
The alien law, I fear, will upon trial be found inadequate to
the object intended, but I am willing to try it in the case of
Collot;-^
1 A curious and intei'csting account of the personal history of Thomas Cooper,
inchiding the two letters here mentioned, is given in the notes to Wharton's
State Trials, Sj-c, -pix 659-681. There can be no doubt that tliis prosecution
was a mistake. The fact of his having been a disappointed applicant for office
would have been a far more effective instrument to rely upon, in order to
neutralize his influence.
2 It is worthy of remark that this letter contains the closest approximation
to any expression of opinion upon the alien and sedition laws, to be found in
the whole of Mr. Adams's correspondence during his administration. He was
in fact regarded by Mr. Hamilton and the ultra members of the federal party
as lukewarm, if not unfriendly to them. Yet the entire responsibility for the
measures has been made to fall upon him ! General Washington's opinions, as
expressed, were much more decided. See the letters to Spotswood and to
Washington, in Sparks's Washington, vol. xi. pp. 345, 387. There are other
letters still unpubhshed to the same effect. General Hamilton thought the laws
required amendment, as not effective enough. Hamilton's Works, Hamilton to
Dayton, vol. vi. pp. 388 - 389.
OFFICIAL. 15
TO T. PICKERING, SECRETARY OF STATE.
Quincy, 14 August, 1799.
Inclosed are four petitions for mercy. One from Conrad
Marks, Frederick Heyney, Anthony Stabler, John Getman,
Valentine Kuder, Jacob Kline, David Schaffer, and Philip Desh ;
another from George Schaffer, Daniel Schwarts, Henry Stahler,
Christian Rhodes, and Henry Schaffer; a third from Jacob
Eyerman and John Everhart ; and a fourth from John Fries ; all
supported by numerous petitioners in their behalf.
I wish Dr. Priestley could see these petitions, and be asked
to consider whether it would be a pleasant thing to have an
equal number of his neighbors in Northumberland brought by
his exertions and example into a situation equally humble. I
pray you to communicate these petitions to the heads of de-
partment, and especially to the Attorney-General. I wish all to
consider whether it is proper that any answer should be given,
by me or my order, to any of them. I think it may be said that
these people are brought to humble themselves " in dust and
ashes before their offended country." That repentance, how-
ever, which, in the sight of an all penetrating heaven, may be
sufficiently sincere to obtain the pardon of sins, cannot always
be sufficiently certain in the eyes of mortals to justify the par-
don of crimes.
TO T. PICKERING, SECRETARY OF STATE.
Quincy, 16 August, 1799.
I have received your favor of the 10th. Mr. Shaw discovered
his omission of numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, and the paper of ex-
tracts, and sent them on the next day. I hope you received
them in course. I have read the address to the independent
electors of Pennsylvania, and am very curious to know where
all this will end.i The trial will bring out some whimsical
1 Mr. Pickering in his letter wrote : " The address to the electors of Penn-
sylvania is unquestionably the production of Tench Coxe, late commissioner of
the revenue, and until May 8th, 1 792, assistant to the Secretary of the treasury."
Mr. Coxe had been removed from office, upon a report made on his case by
the Cabinet officers.
16 OFFICIAL.
things.^ At present I will say nothing. I have no apprehen-
sion for myself or the public from the consequences.
TO B. STODDERT, SECRETARY OF THE NAVY.
Quincy, 23 August, 1799.
My thoughts and feelings are exactly in unison with yours,
expressed in your favor of the 17th.2 I would propose that our
envoys be landed at Lisbon, and take an overland journey to
Paris, through Madrid. This will give them an opportunity of
gaining much information, useful to their country. In this case
the frigate may take Mr. Smith and carry him to Constantinople,
or the envoys may be landed at Bilbao or Bessarabia. The
frigate in either case may cruise, and take up the envoys on
their return at Lisbon or Bilbao, or we can send another vessel
for them to any place. It will be total ruin to any of our
frigates to lie in French harbors all winter. I hope our envoys
will not be long in negotiation. Their instructions will be
precise, and they may be as categorical as they please.
TO T. PICKERING, SECRETARY OF STATE.
Quincy, 24 August, 1799.
Sir, — I have received your favor of the 16th, and read the
letter of Mr. B. H. Phillips, our consul at Curasao, of 20th
July, and the papers inclosed with it, which I now return. It
is right to communicate these documents to Mr. Van Polanen
and to JVIr, MuiTay, and to remonstrate in clear language to the
Batavian government against the partiality of the governor
' Mr. Pickering bad mentioned that process had been instituted against Wil-
liam Duano, for libel.
2 Mr. Stoddcrt bad ]5roposed that the frigate United States should carry out
the new ministers to France, and return without a detention of more than a
fortnight. But he goes on to say ; —
" Talking on this subject vnth some of the heads of department, I find that it
is the expectation that the vessel which carries the ministers, will wait to bring
them back, and for this purpose will wait till the spring to avoid a winter pas-
sage.
In this A-iew of the subject I see many objections to employing the United
States in this service."
OFFICIAL. 17
and council,^ and the scandalous conduct of the frigate. But
still, I think we have something to do to teach our own Ame-
rican seamen, and especially captains, more discretion. At
such a time and in such a place, the sailors ought to have had
more prudence than to have gone on Sunday or any other day
into dance-houses with French sailors, and the captains ought
to have known that it was their duty to apply to the govern-
ment of the place to suppress riots, rather than go and join in
them in person, though in order to suppress them. If any legal
evidence can be produced to prove that the governor and coun-
cil are more or less concerned in the privateers, it would be a
ground of very serious representations to their superiors.
I think it, and always thought it, unfortunate, that when the
authority was given to interdict commerce with the French
islands, it was not extended to others, especially Dutch. I men-
tion these in particular, because the interested character and the
humiliated condition in which they were known to be, should
have suggested the necessity of the measure. The motives
and reasons, however, for adding the Spaniards, Swedes, and
Danes, were not much less.
If an expedition to restore the Stadtholder is undertaken in
concert with the King of Prussia, it may succeed ; if without
him, it is more uncertain. I make no dependence on any such
probable events.^ By the way, some weeks ago you gave me
encouragement to expect a letter from our minister at Berlin,
which you had received. In the multiplicity of business you
have omitted it. I wish to see it as soon as possible. If at
the future session Congress should authorize the suspension of
commerce with Swedish and Danish islands as well as. Dutch,
I should think it worth while to send a minister to those courts.
But I will not promise it shall be Mr. Smith. In my opinion,
he ought to go to Constantinople.
^ In protecting French privateers. A Dutcli frigate had saluted one of these
vessels coming into the harbor of Curacao, with an American schooner, the
Kautihis, as a prize.
2 j\Ir. Pickering had expressed the opinion that it would probably succeed.
He thought Denmark and Sweden might in such case be disposed to exclude
French privateers from their West India islands. He was in favor of sending a
temporary minister to both these courts to favor that object, and he recom-
mended Mr. Wiiham Smith, of South Carolina, then at Lisbon.
18 OFFICIAL.
TO T. PICKERING, SECRETARY OF STATE.
Quincy, 29 August, 1799.
Sir, — I received last night your favor of the 23d. I am very-
glad to be informed that the instructions for the envoys will be
prepared in a few days,i and that you have written to Mr. Davie.
What think you of our envoys landing at Lisbon, and the fri-
gate that carries them taking Mr. Smith to Constantinople, or
cruising on the Spanish coast or in the Mediterranean ? I am
not for delaying the negotiation with the Turks, or any other,
measure, on account of the negotiation with France. In my
opinion, the charm is broken. It has been broken from the
moment the invasion of England was laid aside. That project,
raised and supported with infinite artifice, kept up the terror
and frenzy of the world ; but it is over, and can never be again
excited.
, I had like to have said that the alarm of the yellow fever
gives me more uneasiness than any other alarm. The dispute
of the commissioners under the 6th article gives me much con-
cern.2 I shall write you in a few days on that subject. My
mind is made up thus far. The treaty, as far as it depends on
me, shall be executed with candor and good faith. No unworthy
artifice or chicanery shall be practised on my part, no, not
though the consequence should be the payment of all the
demands. We must, however, do our utmost to obtain an
explanation that may shelter our country from injustice.
B. STODDERT, SECRETARY OF THE NAVY, TO JOHN ADAMS.
Trenton, 29 August, 1799.
Sir, — The officers are now all at this place, and not badly
accommodated. Will you, Sir, pardon the liberty I take, not
in my official but private character, in expressing a wish that it
may not be inconvenient for you to join them here, before our
1 Mr. Pickering had written, "two or three days, to submit to the considera-
tion of the heads of department."
2 This was the commission under Jay's treaty, sitting at Philadelphia, to
examine the claims of British subjects, from which the American commissioners
thought it their duty to withdraw.
OFFICIAL. 19
ministers depart for France ? It may happen that a knowledge
of recent events in Europe may be acquired just before the
sailing of the ministers, which would make some alteration in
their instructions necessary ; and possibly these events might be
of a nature to require the suspension for a time of the mission.
I could urge both public considerations, and those which
relate more immediately to yourself, to justify the wish I have
ventured to express ; but I will only say, that I have the most
perfect conviction that your presence here, before the departure
of the ministers, would afford great satisfaction to the best
disposed and best informed men in that part of the country
with which I am best acquainted ; and I believe, to the great
mass of good men all over the United States.
I will only add that I write this letter without communication
with any person ; that if I err, the error is all my own. In my
motives I cannot be mistaken.
I have the honor to be, &c. &c.
Ben. Stoddert.
TO BENJAMIN STODDERT.
(Private.)
Quincy, 4 September, 1799.
Sir, — I have received your kind letter of the 29th of August,
and I thank you for the friendly sentiments expressed in it, in
your private character.
You urge me to join you and the other public officers at
Trenton, before our ministers depart for France, and this from
considerations which relate more immediately to myself, as well
as others of a public nature.
For myself, I have neither hopes nor fears. But if I could see
any public necessity or utility in my presence at Trenton, I
would undertake the journey, however inconvenient to myself
or my family. I would not, indeed, hesitate, if it were only to
give any reasonable satisfaction to the " best disposed and best
informed men." But you must be sensible that for me to spend
two or three months at Trenton with unknown accommodations,
cannot be very agreeable. Alone, and in private, I can put up
with any thing ; but in my public station, you know I cannot.
The terms of accommodation with France were so minutely
20 OFFICIAL.
considered and discussed by us all, before I took leave of you
at Philadelphia, that I suppose there will be no difference of
sentiments among us. The draught will soon be laid before
you. If any considerable difference should unexpectedly arise
between the heads of department, I will come at all events.
Otherwise, I see no necessity for taking a step that will give
more eclat to the business than I think it deserves. I have no
reason nor motive to precipitate the departure of the envoys.
If any information of recent events in Europe should arrive,
which, in the opinion of the heads of department, or of the
envoys themselves, would render any alteration in their instruc-
tions necessary or expedient, I am perfectly willing that their
departure should be suspended, until I can be informed of it, or
until I can join you. I am well aware of the possibility of events
which may render a suspension, for a time, of the mission, very
proper.! France has always been a pendulum. The extremest
vibration to the left has always been suddenly followed by the
extremest vibration to the right. I fear, however, that the ex-
tremest vibration has not yet been swung.
Upon this subject I solicit your confidential communications
by every post. As I have ever considered this manoeuvre of
the French as the deepest and subtlest, which the genius of the
Directory and their minister has ever invented for the division
of our people, I am determined, if they ever succeed in it, the
world shall be convinced that their success was owing either to
want of capacity, or want of support, in
John Adams.
P. S. Though I have marked this letter private, you may use
it at your discretion for the purposes intended.
1 Out of this obviously just and natural view of possible contingencies, Mr.
Hamilton and his friends in the cabinet endeavored to construct a charge against
Mr. Adams, of misleading them as to his design that the mission should proceed.
Nothing is more clear throughout this correspondence than the fixedness of the
policy pursued by Mr. Adams, subject to modification only by circumstances
which could not be foreseen. Mr. \Volcott was the authority for Mr. Hamilton's
statement. His wishes evidently biased his judgment. Hamilton's Works,
vol. vi. p. 471.
OFFICIAL. 21
T. PICKERING, SECRETARY OF STATE, TO JOHN ADAMS.
Trenton, 9 September, 1799.
Sir, — I have the honor to inclose the opinions of the Attor-
ney-General and heads of departments on the petitions of John
Fries and others, insurgents in Bucks and Northampton coun-
ties in Pennsylvania, that no pardon should noio be granted,
nor any answer given.
I am revising the draught of instructions for the envoys to
France, and making the alterations which have been agreed on.
I expect to transmit them to you by to-morrow's mail ; and am,
with great respect, &c.
Timothy Pickering.
(Inclosed.)
C. lee, attorney-general, to T. PICKERING, SECRETARY OF STATE.
Alexandria, 2 September, 1799.
Sir, — On the 29th of last month I had the honor to receive
your letter of the 26th, inclosing the President's of the 14th, and
the several petitions for pardon in favor of John Fries and others,
charged with high treason, and George SchafFer and others,
convicted of misdemeanor, and Jacob Eyerman and John Evcr-
hart, charged with misdemeanor, in the late insurrection in
Northampton and other counties in Pennsylvania.
The question proposed by the President aflecting the liberty
and property of some individuals, and the lives of others, has
received my particular attention and most mature deliberation.
I understand it as meaning whether any of the suppliants should
be pardoned ; for unless a pardon is granted in some of the
cases, I am humbly of opinion no answer should be returned
in any.
The power of pardoning criminals is vested in the Chief
Magistrate for the public good. In deciding upon a petition
for pardon, it is to be considered whether it ^vill more conduce
to the public good to deny or to grant it. To a benevolent and
generous heart acts of mercy are so pleasing as often to over-
power discretion, so that mercy to a few is cruelty to many.
22 OFFICIAL.
In the course of five years, two insurrections against the law-
ful authority of the United States have happened in Pennsyl-
vania. At a great public expense they have been each quelled.
The first was more alarming, and was quelled at a much greater
expense, than the last. The offenders in the first experienced
the presidential clemency, and not a traitor suffered the punish-
ment of the law. The offenders in the last, charged with treason,
are yet all to be tried ; and in the late defence of Fries, I under-
stand, the dangerous doctrine was avowed by his advocates, of
whom the Secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania was
one, that to resist by force the execution of a general revenue
law of the United States, with intent that it should never be
executed in certain counties, amounted not to treason, but to a
misdemeanor only.
Pennsylvania, possessing very many good, is not without a
considerable number of bad citizens, some of whom are ignorant,
refractory, headstrong, and wicked. From these circumstances,
I think an exemplary punishment of rebellious conduct is more
necessary and will be more salutary in that State than in any
other, and therefore that considerations of public policy require
that the most criminal of the insurgents should be left to the
due and impartial course of the law.
If this be most proper in regard to those whose lives are in
jeopardy, it certainly is most proper towards those who have
been or shall be convicted of misdemeanors, and whose punish-
ments do not or shall not exceed the measure of their crimes.
In the treason cases, it is uncertain who, if any, will be con-
victed ; but after judgment it will be then in season and also
in the power of the President to discriminate, and to arrest the
sword of justice, in regard to those who shall appear to have the
best claim to his gracious and merciful interposition.
The like opportunity will occur in relation to those who shall
be hereafter convicted of misdemeanor. As to such as have
been already sentenced, no special circumstances are stated
which distinguish the cases, and as no sufficient cause appears
for pardoning all of them, there is no ground for exempting any
from the punishment which they have been ordered to suffer ;
and consequently all should satisfy the sentences of the law. I
believe Eyerman is a German priest, who but lately came into
America, and instantly entered on the function of sowing sedi-
OFFICIAL. 23
tion, and preparing his followers for works of darkness, disobe-
dience, and rebellion. He has not been tried, and there is no
danger of his being punished beyond his deserts.
Upon the whole, it is my mature opinion that the President
should not return any answer to either of the petitions, and that
no pardon should be granted under present circumstances to
any of the petitioners.
I am. Sir, very respectfully, &c.
Charles Lee.
Eyerman is a German priest, who has been in America about
two years, and not only thus early a sower of sedition in the
country where he has found an asylum, but of an infamous,
immoral character. Such has been my information.
Timothy Pickering.
We entirely concur in the Attorney-General's opinion, that
none of the petitioners should noiv be pardoned, nor any answer
given them.
Timothy Pickering.
Oliver Wolcott.
James Mc Henry.
Ben. Stoddert.
Trenton, 7 September, 1797.
T. PICKERING, secretary OF STATE, TO JOHN ADAMS.
(Private.)
Trenton, 11 September, 1799.
Sir, — The general alarm of the yellow fever in Philadelphia,
occasioned the removal of the public offices to this place. This
has caused some delay in finishing the draught of instructions
for the envoys to the French republic, which I had the honor
of transmitting you yesterday,' the draught having been pre-
viously examined, altered, and amended, conformably to the
opinions of the heads of department. I now inclose some
papers relating to the subject, which want of time prevented
my forwarding yesterday.
1 Mr. Pickering's letter of tbe 10th, covering the instructions, is marked thus :
" Reed. Sept. 14th, at night, by the hand of William Smith, Esq., from Boston."
See the letter in answer, dated the 16th.
24 OFFICIAL.
Of the three leading points which were fixed before your
departure from Philadelphia, we have ventured to propose a
deviation in one only, that respecting the role d' equipage?- For,
however clear in our own minds is the right of American citizens
to a full indemnification for captures and condemnations for
want of that document, after much deliberation, we thought, if
France would submit that and other questions to a board im-
partially constituted, as proposed in the draught, or in secret
declarations or stipulations agree to the specific rules of adjudi-
cations therein detailed, that the people of America might
think the negotiation ought not to be frustrated, as it might be.
by making such a concession an ultimatum. We thought, indeed,
that the captures of our vessels, because their cargoes were pro-
duced or fabricated in the British dominions, perfectly unjusti-
fiable, and a case more unexceptionable, if made an ultimatum.
But if France agrees to the rules of adjudication, or to the
mode of constituting a board of commissioners, as now proposed,
we conceived that the United States would be satisfied.
I propose to send a copy of the draught of instructions to
Mr. Ellsworth, and to invite his observations upon them, as it
is important that he should be satisfied. And if want of time
should prevent a second transmission of the instructions to you,
(which, however, I think will not be the case,) may I take the
liberty of proposing, if your judgment should not be definitively
made up on particular points, that we may, if Mr. Ellsworth
should desire it, and we all concur in opinion with him, make
alterations in the draught ? Provided that none of the ultimata
be varied, except that which prescribes the mode of organizing
the board of commissioners.
On the 26th ultimo T received the inclosed private letter from
Mr. Murray, dated the 18th of June. The « very portentous
scene," which, by his advices from Paris, " appeared to be open-
ing there," doubtless referred to what the newspapers have
called « another explosion." The dismission of Treilhard from
the Du-ectory, and the forced resignation of la Reveillere le
Peaux and Merlin, which, with the other proceedings of the two
councils, demonstrate that the dictatorial power of the Directory
is overturned, have suggested to the heads of department some
1 Volume viii. p. 627.
OFFICIAL. 25
doubts of the expediency of an immediate departure of the
envoys.
The men lately in power, who gave the assurances you
required, relative to the mission, being ousted in a manner indi-
cative of a revolution in the public mind, and, according to Mr.
Murray's letter, the threats, now first uttered by the military, of a
KING, show such instability and uncertainty in the government
of France, and are ominous of such further and essential
changes, probably at no great distance, as made it appear to us
a duty to submit to your consideration the question of a tem-
porary suspension of the mission to that country, where a state
of things, and that final result which you long since foresaw
and predicted, appear to be rapidly advancing. Such a suspen-
sion would seem to us to place the United States in a more
commanding situation, and enable the President to give such a
turn to the mission as the impending changes should in his
opinion demand.
Or if a revival of the system of ten'or should first take place,
which the last arrival of intelligence at New York now shows
to be probable, still the question of suspending the mission seems
to the heads of department to merit serious consideration. It is
an undoubted fact, that the character of the late change at Paris
has been purely Jacobinical. The clubs have been again opened,
and the Jacobins are everywhere active to electrify the people.^
I have the honor to be, with great respect, &c.
Timothy Pickering.
B. STODDERT, SECRETARY OP THE NAVY, TO JOHN ADAMS.
Trenton, 13 September, 1799.
Sir, — I am honored with your letter of the 4th instant, and
cannot but lament that the accommodations to be obtained here
are very far inferior to such as would be suitable for the Presi-
' This letter, though sent in the name of the Secretary of State, was con-
curred in cordially by the Secretary of the Treasury and by the Secretary of
"War — and more hesitatingly by Mr. Stoddert, -who had begun to show symp-
toms of disagreement with the policy of his colleagues. Mr. Lee, the Attorney-
General, had differed with them on the nomination of Mr. Vans Murray, which
he approved. He also differed with them upon the propriety of suspending the
mission.
VOL. IX. 3
26 OFFICIAL.
dent of the United States. Indeed, I am afraid none could be
obtained which would not be extremely inconvenient and dis-
agreeable to both Mrs. Adams and yourself. Yet having no
motive unconnected with your honor and that of the govern-
ment, I hope you will pardon my freedom in adhering to my
wish that you would join the officers here, before the departure
of the mission to France. Or, if that should be suspended, that
you would not give the order for the suspension before your
arrival here. Colonel Pickering has addressed a letter to you
on this subject, with the concurrence of the other departments.
If you should be determined on the measure, nothing will be
lost by delaying to take it for a month, for I am sure the com-
missioners will not sooner than that time be ready to sail ; and
Mi\ Davie, who will leave North Carolina the 20th September,
could not be stopped much short of Trenton, if you were to
give orders for stopping him. On the other hand, if you should
consider the measure as a questionable one, you might, a month
hence, decide it, with the advantage of the lights which all the
advices to be received for a month, which may be very import-
ant, might throw on the subject. Whether it be decided to
suspend the mission, or otherwise, the decision may and will be
important. It will be a great measure either way, and will be
attended with consequences in proportion to its magnitude. All
the solemnity possible should perhaps be given to the decision.
General Washington, one of the most attentive men in the
world to the manner of doing things, owed a great proportion
of his celebrity to this circumstance. It appears to me, that the
decision in question would be better supported throughout the
country, if it be taken when you are surrounded by the officers
of government and the ministers, even if it should be against
their unanimous advice.
I will state, as briefly as I can, other reasons which influence
my wishes on the subject of your coming to Trenton.
I have never entertained the opinion, prevalent with many
persons, that we could not, during the present war in Europe,
maintain peace with both France and England, though I believe
it wiU be a difficult matter. There are already indications that
England looks at us with a jaundiced eye, arising in part per-
haps from the effort to treat with France, in part from the repre-
sentations made by their commissioners and their minister, on
OFFICIAL. 27
the subject of the commission under the sixth article of the treaty.
No doubt their commissioners had for a long time been preju-
diced and soured, and have in some instances acted as if it was
their desire to plunge the two nations into war. Our own, I
believe, have been actuated by pure views, but the difference
between them on almost every question has been so wide, that
it is difficult to conceive that both sides could have been rational,
and at the same time possess a desire to bring the business to
a just conclusion. Mr. Listen, mild and reasonable as he may
appear on other subjects, has not been so on this, and Mr. Rich,
who is to return to England in the packet, has written a letter
to our commissioners sufficiently indicative of a mind highly
irritated.
We have a right to make peace with France wdthout asking
the permission of England, and we are not to submit to un-
reasonable and unjust constructions of the treaty for fear of her
resentment. It is our inclination and our policy to yield to no
injustice, and to do none. Acting on this system, if England
insists on a quarrel, however we may lament the calamity, we
need not fear the result, if our own people are satisfied that the
government has acted in all instances right. But amicable and
candid explanations are due to England and to ourselves. I
should presume it would be very proper to assure her imme-
diately, that to obtain peace with France we would sacrifice no
just right of England ; and that a fair and candid representation
of the true grounds of difference between the commissioners
should be immediately furnished to Mr. King, with assurances
of the sincere desire of the government to execute justly the
treaty according to its true meaning. Perhaps it might be found
that some constructions of our commissioners might be yielded,
and that England might be told on what fair ground we could
meet her.
Colonel Pickering is certainly too much occupied with the
business of his department to find time to understand this sub-
ject so well as our commissioners and the Attorney-General
must do ; and it has therefore appeared to me that the best
course would be to call these gentlemen, at least the Attorney-
General, to the seat of government, to prepare the representation,
which should afterwards be pruned, by the heads of department,
of every thing like acrimony, and of any argument, if any such
28 OFFICIAL.
found admittance, calculated to confute rather than to convince.
Thus corrected, it might be submitted to the President. Now,
it seems to me that this course could not be adopted without
the direction of the President, nor, indeed, so well executed
without his presence ; and I think the peace of the country may
depend upon taking the true ground now, and upon promptly
carrying into effect the proper measures to prevent a misunder-
standing, where it is so much our interest to be understood.
The great number of captures and condemnations, at Provi-
dence and Jamaica, of our vessels, has produced a sourness among
the best of our merchants, which will increase. If they arise
from the avarice and iniquity of the judges, without any agency
on the part of government, they would cease on a representa-
tion of the injury. If they are countenanced by the government,
this would probably cease, and reparation be made, if misrepre-
sentations and prejudices are removed. At all events, it is
degrading to our government to suffer them to continue, with-
out an effort to prevent them.
On the subject of the mission to France, your character is
known throughout the whole of the country ; the gentlemen who
fill the great offices more immediately connected with the Pre-
sident, however high their merit, and however respected, where
known, not having before acted on the great theatre in conspi-
cuous stations, are not enough known to inspire the same degree
of confidence ; and it may not be believed that the instructions
to the ministers will wear exactly the same complexion, if you
are at Quincy, when they are delivered, as they would have
done, had you been on the spot.
As to the considerations which I meant as more immediately
relating to yourself, I have been apprehensive that artful design-
ing men might make such use of your absence from the seat of
government, when things so important to restore peace with
one country, and to preserve it with another, were transacting,
as to make your next election less honorable than it would
otherwise be.
I have thus. Sir, in a very tedious letter indulged myself in
great freedoms. I have given my opinions with candor, but
with great diffidence ; for I am sensible that I am but a poor
politician. I hope you will not think the trouble of an answer
at all necessary. "Whatever course you take, my inclination
OFFICIAL. 29
will prompt me to think right, and my duty to support. I will,
however, observe, that if you should come to Trenton by the
10th of October, it will be in time to see the ministers, should
they proceed on the mission ; in one month later, it will be safe
to go to Philadelphia, where I presume you would choose to be,
about that time.
I have the honor to be, &c., &c.
Ben. Stoddert.
TO B. STODDERT, SECRETARY OF THE NAVY.
Quincy, 14 September, 1799.
Sir, — I received last night your favor of the 5th. The gen-
tleman you mention is a native of Boston, and well known. I
shall make no observations on his character. None of the
suspicions of the Americans in France, which the gentleman
of Maryland mentioned to you, will surprise the federalists in
this quarter.! But the popularity of the French has so dwindled
away, that no impression can be made to any great eflfect in
their favor. The nomination of envoys to treat has taken away
so many pretexts from some, and given such opportunities for
others to " back out," as my wagoners express themselves, that
the French government at least has few advocates left. Hich-
born is a man of talents, but of such mysterious, enigmatical,
and incomprehensible conduct, that no party seems to have
much confidence in him, though he is supposed to be inveterate
in opposition to federal men and measures.
TO T. PICKERING, SECRETARY OF STATE.
Quiucy, 16 September, 3 799.
Sir, — Saturday, the 14th, at night, I received, by the hand
of William Smith, Esquire, your favor of the 10th. I have once
read, with some care, the important State paper inclosed with
it, and find little to add, little to diminish, and very little to
J These suspicions mentioned in Mr. Stoddcrt's letter were, that Mr. Hichborn
was an instrument of the French government, returning home to efTect some
secret purpose. This is the same gentleman mentioned in vol. ii. p. 410.
3*
30 OFFICIAL.
correct.^ You do not inform me whether it has been considered
by the heads of department, and received their corrections or
approbation, but intimate that you should forward, by the mail
of the next day, some papers respecting it. I shall wait for
these, and then give them, and the excellent composition they
are connected with, a more attentive perusal, and write my
sentiments fully on the subject. Little time shall be lost. The
revolution in the Directory, and the revival of the clubs and
private societies in France, and the strong appearances of
another reign of democratic fury and sanguinary anarchy ap-
proaching, seem to justify a relaxation of our zeal for the sudden
and hasty departure of our envoys. If they remain in America
till all apprehensions of the autumnal equinoctial gales are
passed, it will be so much the more agreeable for them, and not
less safe for the public. I am not sanguine enough to anticipate
news of the arrival of Prince Charles or Marshal Suwarrow at
Paris, or of a league with the King of Prussia, to restore monarchy
to France ; but I think we may expect news by the middle of
October, which it may be advantageous for us to know, before
the departure of our envoys.^ I would come on to Trenton
before their sailing, if there were reason to suppose there would
be any utility in such a sacrifice. But I presume the whole
business may be as well conducted by letter and the post. If
you think otherwise, you will please to let me know.
TO J. MCHENRY, SECRETARY OF WAR.
Quincy, 18 September, 1799.
Sir, — I have ruminated so long upon the case of Andrew
Anderson, that I am under some apprehension that my feelings
have grown too strong, and produced a result that will not
appear to you perfectly right. I consider Cox and his associates
1 The instructions to the new ministers.
2 It seems difficult to conceive how any members of the cabinet could have
misunderstood the extent of Mr. Adams's design to postpone the departure of
the envoys, after the reading of this letter. They would not have done so, if
they had not been totally blinded by their hopes, that they could ultimately
overrule the whole project. They were not without stimulants from persons
outside to attempt tliis. Gibbs's Federal Administrations, vol. ii. p. 245. Ham-
ilton's Works, \o\. vi. p. 414.
OFFICIAL. 31
as very artful men, and, being probably considered as men of
great consequence in that country, they had the influence to
seduce a poor soldier to a crime, for which they probably deserve
to be punished, as well as he. In announcing the pardon
inclosed, you may order what solemnities you think fit. He
may receive his pardon at the gallows, where it may be
announced that it will be the last time such a crime will be
pardoned.^
OLIVER ELLSWORTH TO JOHN ADAMS.
Hartford, 18 September, 1799.
Sir, — If the present convulsion in France, and the symptoms
of a gi-eater change at hand, should induce you, as many seem
to expect, to postpone for a short time the mission to that
counti-y, I wish for the earliest notice of it. The Circuit Court
in this State and Vermont fell through last spring from the
indisposition of Judge Chase, and must now fall through again
from the indisposition of Judge Cushing, unless I attend them.
I am beginning the court here, and should proceed on to Ver-
mont, if I was sure of not being called on in the mean time to
embark. It is. Sir, my duty to obey, not advise, and I have
only to hope that you will not disapprove of the method I take
to learn the speediest intimation of yours.^
I have the honor to be, &c.
Oliver Ellsworth.
TO T. PICKERING, SECRETARY OF STATE.
Quincy, 19 September, 1799.
Sir, — On the 17th, at night, I had the pleasure of receiving
your favor of the 11th, and have given it that attention which
the great importance of its contents deserves.^ On the subject
of the role d'equipag-e, 1 feel a strong reluctance to any relaxation
' "A soldier tried on a charge of deserting his post, and aiding and assisting
two prisoners to make their escape from confinement, when he was sentinel and
had charge of them, and losing his arms and accoutrements." McHenry's Letter,
11th September.
* This letter had been instigated by more than one member of the cabinet.
Mr. Ellsworth seems to have sent it at a venture. See his letters to Mr. Wolcott
in Gibbs's Federal Administrations, vol. ii. pp. 265, 266. /
3 Page 23.
32 OFFICIAL.
of the peremptory demand we agreed on before I left Philadel-
phia, and General Marshall's observations are very just, yet it
may be wiser to leave it to the discretion of the envoys, under
the limitations suggested, and I shall acquiesce in the opinion
of the heads of department. I am glad you have sent a copy
to the chief justice. I had several long conversations with him
last winter, on the whole subject. He appears to me to agi'ee
most perfectly in sentiment with me upon every point of our
policy towards France and England, and this policy was founded
only in perfect purity of moral sentiment, natural equity, and
Christian faith towards both nations. I am, therefore, under no
hesitation in the propriety of sending the draught to him, nor
in consenting that, if want of time should prevent a second
transmission of the instructions to me, the heads of department,
in concert with him, may maive alterations in the draught, within
the limitations you propose. Indeed, Mr. Ellsworth is so great
a master of business, and his colleagues are so intelligent, that
I should not be afraid to allow them a greater latitude of dis-
cretion, if it were not unfair to lay upon them alone the burden
and the dangerous responsibility that may accompany this busi-
ness.
That portentous scenes are opened in France, is past a doubt.
The directors, who sent us the assurances, are, for what we
know, all removed. The new ones we know nothing of. Bar-
ras, we have no reason to believe very friendly to us. Sieyes,
we have reason to fearj is unfriendly. The " threats by the
military, of a king," which Mr. Murray mentions, are to me no
solid indications of a restoration. That every comet, which
has appeared, will return, I have no doubt; but the period of its
revolution is very difficult to calculate. The system of terror
will revive, if the terrorists can find means to revive it. These
means imply money to pay, clothe, feed, and arm soldiers, on
one hand, and timidity and dejection enough in their domestic
enemies to submit to their exactions and cruelties. These are
all problems to us, to all Europe, and, probably, to the French
themselves.
There is one observation which appears to me of great im-
portance. The reign of terror has ever appeared the most dis-
posed to accommodate with us. This is humiliating enough,
but it is not our fault. It is not very clear to me what our
OFFICIAL. 33
inferences ought to be from this fact. Neither the royalists, nor
the aristocrats, nor the priesthood, have ever discovered the least
complaisance for us. It is an awful question to me what chance
we should have, if our ambassadors should have to treat at a
Congress for a general pacification. Should we not have more
to fear from the secret jealousy of every power, than even from
that of France and Spain ? With great anxiety upon this whole
subject, and with much respect for you, I remain
John Adams.
P. S. I return Mr. Murray's letter, and I will soon write more
directly concerning the draught.
TO T. PICKERING, SECRETARY OF STATE.
Quincy, 21 September, 1799.
Sometime between the 10th and 15th of October I shall join
you at Trenton, and will suspend till that time the ultimate
determination concerning the instructions. I pray you to write
to the Attorney- General to meet us. We must be all together,
to determine all the principles of our negotiations with France
and England.
I have been obliged to sail for Europe in the middle of winter
once, and on the 17th of November at another time. Any day
between the 20th and 30th of October is as good a time to
embark for Europe, as any part of the year. If our envoys
are delayed so long at least, it will be no misfortune.
TO B. STODDERT, SECRETARY OF THE NAVY.
Quincy, 21 September, 1799.
Sir, — I have read over and over again your letter of the 13th.
I regret extremely another blunder of the post-office, by which
it has been sent to the southward and returned to me only last
night. You needed not to have apologized for its length ; there
is not a word in it to spare. You may not write me any more
letters, which are to reach Quincy or Boston, after the 29th of
September. I will be at Trenton by the 10th, 12th, or at latest
34 OFFICIAL.
the 15th of October, if no fatal accident prevents. Mrs. Adams^
although she is determined to risk her life by one more journey
to Philadelphia, will not come with me. She will come after
me, so that I shall want no extraordinary accommodations. I
can and will put up, with my private secretary and two domes-
tics only, at the first tavern or first private house I can find: I
shall desire the attendance of the Attorney- General and the
American commissioners as soon as possible, at Trenton, after
the 12th or 15th of October.
I have only one favor to beg, and that is that a certain elec-
tion may be wholly laid out of this question and all others. I
know the people of America so well, and the light in which I
stand in their eyes, that no alternative will ever be left to me,
but to be a President of three votes or no President at all, and
the difference, in my estimation, is not worth three farthings.^
With a strong attachment to you, I am, &c.
John Adams.
TO THE HEADS OF DEPARTMENT.
Quincy, 21 September, 1799.
I pray you to write me no letters to reach Quincy or Boston
after the 29th. On next Monday, sen'night, I shall set out for
Trenton, and reach it at latest by the 15th of October. I also
request that you would write to the Attorney-General and
the American commissioners to meet us all at Trenton at as
early a day, after the 15th, as you shall judge proper. I also
desire that all this may be kept as secret as possible, that my
journey may meet as little interruption as possible. I shall
come alone. Mrs. Adams will follow me soon enough to go
with me to Philadelphia.
TO CHIEF JUSTICE ELLSWORTH.
Quincy, 22 September, 1799.
Dear Sir, — I received last night your favor of the 18th.
Judge Gushing called here yesterday in his way to Vermont.
1 Mr. Wolcott, on the other hand, seeking for bad motives, finds them in the
" belief that the President supposes he is conciliating the opposition." Gibbs's
Memoirs, &c. vol. ii. p. 279.
OFFICIAL. 35
This, however, may not perhaps make any alteration in your
views. The convulsions in France, the change of the Directory,
and the prognostics of greater change, will certainly induce me
to postpone for a longer or shorter time the mission to Paris.
I wish you to pursue your office of Chief Justice of the United
States without interruption, till you are requested to embark.
You will receive from the Secretary of State letters which will
occupy your leisure hours. I should be happy to have your
own opinion upon all points. We may have further information
from Europe. If your departure for Europe should be postponed
to the 20th of October, or even to the 1st of November, as safe
and as short a passage may be expected as at any other season
of the year. This is all I can say at present.^
With great and sincere esteem, &c.
John Adams.
to t. pickering, secretary of state.
Quincy, 23 September, 1799.
I return you ]VIr. Murray's letters of May 28th, June 13th and
22d, and July 13th and 15th, and the parts of newspapers inclosed
with them. The private letter you sent me from Mr. Murray,
some time ago, contained much such a review of the pamphlet
of Boulay de la Meurthe. I have been anxious to see it, but it
is not yet arrived. A parallel between the English republic and
the French njust be a curious thing. I have long thought that
the present generation in France, England, Ireland, and Ame-
rica, had never read Lord Clarendon. I am afraid Mr. Murray
has not. If he had, he would be less sanguine about so early a
restoration in France.^
For my own part, I have more anxiety about the English than
1 Mr. Ellsworth communicated the substance of this letter to Mr. Wolcott,
construing it as a suspension of his destiny to France. And it seems to have
confirmed the cabinet in their confidence that they should finally defeat the
mission. The ministers actually sailed on the 3d of November. Gibbs's Federal
Adininistrattotis, vol. ii. p. 2G6.
2 "Mr. Murray (in letters, mostly private, which I have laid before the
President) viewing the State of France within, and its foreign relations, from a
near station, supposes the republic will not survive six months; the President
supposes it Avill last seven years, and desires his opinion may be remembered."
T. Pickering to G. Washington, in Gibbs's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 281.
The republic lasted about five years. The restoration took place sixteen
years afterwards.
36 OFFICIAL
the French. Chance, or, if you will. Providence, has added to
two Scotchmen a Godwinian descendant of a French refugee,
and justice, I fear, will not be heard. ^ I own, I doubt whether
we had not better meet the result in all its deformities. I am de-
termined, so far as depends vipon me, to execute the treaty in
its full extent. If it costs us four millions sterling, when it
ought not to cost us one, I had rather pay it than depart from
good faith or lie under the suspicion of it. If the judgment of
Messrs. McDonald, Rich, and Guillemard, finally prevails,
British equity will never be forgotten in America. The court
have us in their power. If we believe Britons less hungry for
plunder than Frenchmen, we shall be deceived.
I shall be with you between the 10th and 15th of October.
T. PICKERING TO JOHN ADAMS.
Trenton, 24 September, 1799.
Sir, — The subject of the proposed mission to France is so
important, that, whether it proceed or be suspended, your deci-
sion will certainly be the result of your mature consideration.
But as the idea has occurred to you of coming to Trenton, and
you have intimated that you would do it, if judged best, I have
consulted my colleagues, and they concur with me in opinion
that it will be an eligible step. Governor Davie will probably
be here the first week in October, and Judge Ellsworth will
doubtless be ready to meet him ; or if you should conclude to
come on, the judge would certainly be gratified in waiting to
accompany you.
Governor Davie, having relinquished his government and
made arrangements for the voyage to Europe, will probably be
better satisfied, after making the long journey from North Caro-
lina, to return home again, if the further suspension of the
mission take place, after a personal interview with you and his
colleague; and your final determination relative to the mission
will doubtless give more general satisfaction to the community
at large, when accompanied with these solemnities.
If, however, the news expected from Europe should be of a
* This refers to the commission under the sixth article of Jay's Treaty.
OFFICIAL. 37
nature, not only to strengthen your reasons for the temporary
suspension which you have already deemed expedient ; but if
new facts should be decisive of the course proper to be pursued,
the trouble of your journey may be saved.
These observations are most respectfully submitted to your
consideration ^ by
Sir, your most obedient servant,
Timothy Pickering.
TO B. STODDERT SECRETARY OF THE NAVY.
Quincy, 26 September, 1799.
I return you Mr. Read's letter, and the note inclosed in your
favor of the 19th.2
From a long intimacy wdth Mr. Izard, and a knowledge of
his worth, and from some acquaintance with his son, I assure
you that nothing of the kind could give me more pleasure than
the appointment of Ralph Izard, the son of Ralph Izard of South
Carolina, to be a midshipman in the navy. I wish it had been
my fortune to have had a son or grandson of a suitable age to
be appointed to a similar office in the same day. I shall take
you by the hand not long after the 10th of October, I hope.
John Adams.
O. ELLSWORTH TO JOHN ADAMS.
Windsor, 5 October, 1799.
Sir, — Since you passed on, I have concluded to meet Gover-
nor Davie at Trenton, which he probably will expect, and which,
besides putting it in our power to pay you our joint respects,
and to receive as fully any communication of your views as you
may wish to make, may enable me to accompany him east-
ward, should you continue inclined to such suspension of our
mission, as, under present aspect, universal opinion, I believe,
and certainly my own, would justify.
It is a matter of some regret, Sir, that I did not consult you
' It would appear from the tone of this letter as if the cabinet, at this date, had
concerted their measures to secure the defeat of the mission, and felt confident
of success. Hence the extent of their surprise and mortification when the com-
bination proved of no avail. i
2 These papers requested the appointment of Mr. Izard.
VOL. IX. 4
38 OFFICIAL.
on the propriety of this visit; ^ but if I err, experience has taught
me that you can excuse.
I have the honor, &c.
Oliver Ellsavorth.
C. LEE, ATTORNEY-GENERAL, TO JOHN ADAMS.
Winchester, 6 October, 1799.
Sir, — Hoping it will not be deemed improper in me to give
my opinion, before it is asked, relative to the suspension of the
mission to France, I will take the liberty of expressing it. I
have reflected on the subject a good deal, and I cannot perceive
any suflicient reasons for the suspension.'^ Such a measure
would exceedingly disappoint the general expectation of Ame-
rica, and, exciting the jealousy and suspicion of many concerning
your sincerity in making the nomination, would afford your
enemies an opportunity of indulging their evil dispositions. If
the envoys proceed, as I think they ought, it does not appear
to me that any inconvenience will be felt by the United States,
even if they should find a monarch on the throne of France,
which I by no means expect will very soon happen.^
I am, Sir, with perfect respect, &c.
Charles Lee.
' The singular language used in this letter, indicating in the first paragraph a
change, and in the second, a mere concealment of purpose, taken in connection
with Mr. Pickering's letter of the 24th, suggesting the presence of ]\Ir. Ellsworth,
might well justify a suspicion of concert between them, without meriting any
reproach on Mr. Adams as being unreasonable.
On tliis same day, Mr. Ellsworth reported the substance of his conference
with Mr. Adams, " to a friend." Such is the guarded language of Mr. Gibbs.
That friend was pi-obably Mr. Pickering. Gibbs's Fed. Adm., vol. ii. p. 267,
note. p. 280.
2 Mr. Jay's opinion is quite as clear. See liis letter to Theophilus Parsons.
Jay's Life of John Jai/, vol. ii. p. 296.
3 On the other hand, Mr. Hamilton had worked himself up to the apprehen-
sion that the execution of this measure would " involve the United States in a
Avar on the side of France with her enemies." Mr. Pickering does not seem
to have apprehended so much that no treaty could be made, as that it would be
made too easily, and would go too far against Great Britain. Mr. Wolcott con-
curred with Mr. Hamilton. Mr. McHenry, on the contraiy, although agreeing
in their views, seems to have foreseen the possibility of what really happened.
See his letter to Wasliiagton. Hamilton's Works, vol. vi. p. 414. Gibbs's Fede-
ral Administrations, vol. ii. pp. 280, 281, 282.
OFFICIAL. 39
TO T. PICKERING, SECRETARY OF STATE.
Trenton, 16 October, 1799.
Sir, — I request you to order fair copies of the instructions,
as corrected last evening, to be prepared and delivered to Judge
Ellsworth and Governor Davie, with another for ]Mr. Murray,
without loss of time, and to write a letter to those gentlemen,
as envoys extraordinary to the French republic, expressing, with
the affectionate respects of the President, his desire that they
would take their passage for France on board the frigate the
United States, Captain Barry, now lying at Rhode Island, by
the 1st of November, or sooner, if consistent with their conve-
niences. Captain Barry will have orders to land them in any
port of France which they may prefer, and to touch at any other
ports which they may desire. The President's best wishes for
their health and happiness, as well as for an honorable termina-
tion of their mission, will attend them. As their visit to France
is at one of the most critical, important, and interesting moments
that ever have occurred, it cannot fail to be highly entertaining
and instructive to them, and useful to their country, whether it
terminates in peace and reconciliation, or not. The President
sincerely prays God to have them in his holy keeping.^
I am. Sir, &c.
John Adams.
TO B. STODDERT, secretary OF THE NAVY.
Trenton, 16 October, 1799.
I request you to transmit immediate orders to Captain Barry
to receive on board his frigate and convey to France, and such
port of France as they shall desire, our envoys to the French
republic, with directions to touch at any other ports which they
may point out, and to sail by the 1st of November, or sooner,
1 Thus terminated the long continued struggle of the three cabinet ministers
to overrule the President ; and from this date commences their secret cabal,
darkly alluded to in Mr. Stoddert's letter of the 13th September, in conjunction
with Mr. Hamilton, to set him aside at the next election. The first movement
which was to call out General AVashington, had been under consideration by
them for some time, awaiting this decision. Mr. McHenry says that Mr. Stod-
dert and Mr. Lee were now prepared to "advise the dismission, at least of one."
Gibbs's Federal Administrations, vol. ii. p. 243, p. 245, p. 282.
40 OFFICIAL.
if consistent with their convenience. 1 need say nothing of
the respect to be paid, or the honors to be done, to these great
characters. Captain Barry is to await their return to the United
States.
John Adams.
TO T. PICKERING, SECRETARY OF STATE.
(Private.)
Trenton, 18 October, 1799.
As the session of Congress draws nigh, I pray you to favor
me with your sentiments concerning the communications neces-
sary to be made to Congress of the state of the nation, and
particularly a concise narration of the proceedings with St.
Domingo and the Isle of France. It may be doubtful, however,
whether any thing need be said on the last. A very succinct
account of the invitation of the French Directory to our envoys,
of the subsequent change, and the short pause made on this
side the water in consequence of it, may be proper ; and very
explicit declarations that no relaxation will take place in any
executive part of government in consequence of the mission, till
we know its result, either in preparations for defence by sea
and land, or in the employment of the means aheady provided
by the legislature. In short, whatever is thought proper to be
mentioned to Congress from the full consideration of the state
of the nation, in all its relations, will be received from the Secre-
tary of State with great pleasure by his faithful, humble servant.
John Adams.
N. B. Perhaps I ought to have mentioned particularly the
unfortunate interpretation of the boards of commissioners, the
observations to be made on them, and the sentiments proper to
be expressed in consequence of them, and the miserable rebellion
in Pennsylvania, which must be stated, I suppose, with the
means of its suppression.^
1 Similar requests were addressed on the same day to the other cabinet officers.
That to ISIr. Wolcott is printed in Gibbs's Federal Administrations, vol. ii. p. 298.
OFFICIAL. 41
TO T. PICKERING, SECRETARY OF STATE.
Philadelphia, 12 November, 1799.
I think it will be expedient to lay before Congress, on the
second day of the session, all the papers which relate to the
embassy to France, that they may be printed together, and the
public enabled to judge from correct and authentic documents.
To this end I request you to order copies to be made of your
letter to Mr. Murray and his answer, of his letter to Talleyrand,
and his answer, which should be copied in French, and accom-
panied with a translation into English.
The proclamations, that respecting the insurrection in Penn-
sylvania, and that respecting St. Domingo, should also be laid
before Congress, together with copies of any other papers rela-
tive to both transactions, which you may judge necessary or
proper, and I pray you to have them prepared accordingly.
The organization of the government of the Mississippi terri-
tory, and the demarcation of the line, should perhaps be men-
tioned to Congress, and I pray you to furnish me a sketch of
the facts as they appear from the intelligence in your office.
TO O. WOLCOTT, SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.
Philadelphia, 15 November, 1799.
Sir, — By some accident or other, the original papers con-
cerning the conspiracy against the laws and the beginning of
the late insurrection in Pennsylvania, were never laid before me.
I believe they were transmitted to you by the judge and the
marshal. How far it will be necessary to communicate the
facts in detail to Congress, you will be so good as to consider ;
and I should be obliged to you for your sentiments concerning
all things to be inserted in the speech, as soon as may be con-
venient, because the time draws so near that something must
be soon brought to a conclusion. I wish for your opinions on
all points,! but particularly on the rebellion, and the St. Domingo
business.
1 Mr. Wolcott's answer, dated 18th November, 1799, is printed in Gibbs's
work, vol. ii. pp. 299 - 306.
4*
42 OFFICIAL.
TO A. J. DALLAS.
Philaclelphia, 2 December, 1799.
I return you my hearty thanks for the obliging present of your
reports, in three very handsome volumes, which I received on
Saturday. I prize them highly, not only in the light in which
you present them, but on account of their intrinsic merit and
worth to a profession, which after a divorce of more than a
quarter of a century I still hold in affection and veneration.
Candor obliges me to say that I have made a singular obser-
vation relative to this work. Although, in the times which have
passed since its first publication, the spirit of party has been
disposed to call in question the integrity of every man and
every action, I have never heard an insinuation against the
fidelity of these reports. As the year books, and the reporters
who have followed, have fixed the laws of England upon such
permanent principles of equity and humanity, I hope these
volumes will be the beginning of a series which will prove stiU
more beneficial to mankind.^
John Adams.
to t. pickering, secretary of state.
Phlladelpliia, 7 December, 1799.
The Attorney- General has left with me, and I now send to
you, a project of an explanatory article or treaty, and a project
of a letter to Mr. King, desiring an ultimatum. There is no
business before the government, at this time, of more importance
than this, and I pray you to turn your attention to it, and pre-
pare a draught of a letter to Mr. King, to be considered, if pos-
sible, on Monday evening at six o'clock, at my chamber, when
I ask the favor of your company, with all the heads of depart-
ment.2
1 Mr. Dallas had addressed the following note to Mr. Adams :
Philadelphia, 30 November, 1799.
Sir, — Permit me to request, that you will honor a set of my reports with a
place in your library. If your political cares have not extinguished the profes-
sional ardor which you displayed In the early period of your life, the volumes
will afford you some amusement.
But I particularly beg you to accept them as a mark of the sincere respect
with which I am, Sir, &c. A. J. Dallas.
2 Mr. Wolcott's memorandum of the advice given by him at the cabinet meet-
OFFICIAL. 43
Notes
Of the President on some observations made to him by
the Secretary of the Treasury upon the measures proper to
be taken for obtaining an explanation of the 6th article of the
treaty with Britain.^
Page 2, line 18th. A special commission is proposed. The
President understood it to be the unanimous opinion of the
heads of department, that no special commission would be
necessary. A nomination to the Senate will be necessary to a
special commission. The full powers possessed by Mr. King
are supposed to be sufficient.
Page 3. The concession proposed in this page, the President
fears, and indeed believes, is too well founded. But the facts
should be well considered, and be capable of being made certain,
before such an admission is made by the President's orders.
Page 13. Although neither nation has been brovight to admit
that they were chargeable with the first infraction, yet no Ame-
rican can forget the carrying off the negroes.
Page 17. It may not be very material, but the acknowledg-
ment of independence, at the treaty of peace, may fairly imply
more than is contended for in the second paragraph of this page,
against the authority, validity, and effect of the acts and decla-
rations of the British during the war.
Page 19. I cannot see any distinction in favor of officers,
civil, or military, or naval. They are no more bound by obliga-
tions of allegiance than any other subjects. I cannot agree to
the sentiment at the bottom of this page.
Page 20. I cannot agree that the obligations of allegiance
and patriotism are or can be ever inconsistent or irreconcilable.
Nor can I admit a supposition which seems to be here implied,
ings on this subject, held on the 13th and 14th November, is given by Mr.
Gibbs. Vol. ii. p. 306. He recommended that such a letter and project as the
one here mentioned should be prepared. Mr. Stoddert had suggested that the
Attorney-General should be the person to perform this duty. See page 27.
And this suggestion seems to have been adopted.
1 In ]Mr. Wolcott's memorandum, referred to in the last note, it is stated that
a report on the subject of the suspension of the boards of commissioners under
the British treaty, was made to the President, December 11th, 1799. This
report is not found among Mr. Adams's papers; and it is not printed in Mr.
Gibbs's work, because " possessed of no present interest." These notes upon
that report are without date, but they were probably drawn up on the 1 2th.
44 OFFICIAL.
namely, that the revolution or American war, as it was called,
had for its object the division of an empire. This will require
so long an investigation, and so many distinctions and restric-
tions, that the whole of this must be expunged.
Page 21. We can never consistently admit that the acts and
declarations of Britain were of any legal value at all, not even
within the sphere of their influence.
Page 21, section 5th. The President has no control over the
opinions of judges. They are as independent as he is. Their
judgments in courts must be executed. The President, how-
ever, is very much dissatisfied with this passage, and fears that
wrong will be done in consequence of it. But he sees no pos-
sibility of avoiding it.
Page 23. It is too liberal on the part of the United States
to admit that acts of confiscation, passed during the war, shall
be considered as having been annulled, in respect to debts, by
the treaty of peace. The President is, however, embarrassed
by the opinion of the judges, and will not differ from the heads
of department upon this point, but would rather, if it is possible,
that the point should be left to the board to be appointed, than
that a formal acknowledgment should be made by government.
Page 32. The President doubts the expediency of the decla-
ration at the close of the page. It is, or may be thought an
ostentation of candor without end, effect, or utility. Perhaps a
total silence on this head is sufficient after what has been said
in the speech to Congress upon this subject.
TO TOBIAS LEAR.
Philadelphia, 24 December, 1799.
Sir, — I received in due season your letter of the 15th of this
month, and immediately communicated it to both houses of
Congress in a message. The melancholy event announced in
it had been before communicated to the legislature, but upon
less authentic and regular evidence. The American people are
sincere mourners under the loss of their friend and benefactor.
For General Washington, it is a consummation devoutly to be
wished.
OFFICIAL. 45
I pray you, Sir, to present my regards to Madam Washington
and all the amiable and worthy family, and assure them of my
sincere sympathy with them under this great affliction.
I feel also for yourself, as you have lost in General Washing-
ton a friend not to be replaced.^
With much esteem, &c.
John Adams.
TO MRS, WASHINGTON.
Philadelphia, 27 December, 1799.
Madam, — In conformity with the desire of Congress, I do
myself the honor to inclose by Mr. William Smith Shaw, my
secretary, a copy of their resolutions passed the 24th instant,
occasioned by the decease of your late consort. General George
Washington, assuring you of the profound respect Congress
wdll ever bear to your person and character, and of their con-
dolence on this afflicting dispensation of Providence. In pur-
suance of the same desire, I entreat your assent to the interment
of the remains of the General under the marble monument to
be erected in the capital, at the city of Washington, to com-
memorate the great events of his military and political life.
Renewing to you. Madam, my expressions of condolence on
this melancholy occasion, and assuring you of the profound
respect which I personally entertain for your person and cha-
racter,
I remain, with great esteem. Madam, &c.
John Adams.
^ The death of General Washington at this moment cut off the plan which
had been maturing to draw him back into the field of politics as President again.
The letter of Gouverneur Morris, written by concert with Mr. Hamilton's
friends in New England, to sound his feelings on this subject, was probably
lying unopened on his table. That event also cut the last thread connecting
Mr. Hamilton with Mr. Adams. In his letter to Mr. Lear, Mr. Hamilton speaks
of Washington as having been " an jEgis very essential to him." And three
days later he writes to Rufus King, " the irreparable loss of an inestimable man
removes a control which was felt, and was very salutary." This control was
tacitly not less operative over himself, than over the individual upon whom he
sought to bring it to bear. The rest of this last letter, and especially the post-
script, reveals the writer's views of public policy, as mocUfied by this important
event. Sparks's Life of Gouverneur Morris, vol. iii. p. 123. Hamilton's Works,
vol. vi. pp. 415-417.
46 . OFFICIAL.
TO THE PRESIDENT.
Philadelphia, 13 January, 1800.
We have by the President's direction considered Mr. Ran-
dolph's letter,! and we are of opinion that the public interest
requires that the contemptuous language therein adopted re-
quires a public censure.
If such addresses to the Chief Magistrate remain unnoticed,
we are apprehensive that a precedent will be established, which
must necessarily destroy the ancient, respectable, and urbane
usages of this country.
Timothy Pickering.
Oliver Wolcott.
James McHenry.
Ben. Stoddert.
TO henry KNOX.
Philadelphia, 10 March, 1800.
Dear Sir, — I have received the favor of your letter of the
27th of last month, and feel myself much interested in the sub-
ject of it. Mr. Stoddert had before shown me your letter to
him, and to your son, and I had consented to the idea suggested
in them. The navy, however, is a scene of momentous respon-
sibility to me ; and if a ship should be lost by any man for
whom I shall have made myself thus exclusively answerable,
you know what candid constructions will be put upon your old
friend and humble servant,
John Adams.
TO benjamin LINCOLN.
Philadelphia, 10 March, 1800.
My dear Friend, — I have this morning received your favor
of the 3d, and rejoice in the recovery of your usual health, and
pray that it may continue many years.
^ Mr. John Randolph's letter to the President, attemptinj; to make him re-
sponsible for certain alleged insults received by him at the Theatre from officers
of the marine corps, was the first act which gave him any notoriety in the coun-
try. The Attorney-General, who did not sign the above opinion, seems to have
furnished the draught of the message finally sent to the House of Representa-
tives, simply referring the letter, as a question of privilege, to that body.
OFFICIAL. 47
When I came into office, it was my determination to make
as few removals as possible — not one from personal motives,
not one from party considerations. This resolution I have
invariably observed. Conviction of infidelity to a trust cannot
be resisted, and gross misconduct in office ought not to be over-
looked. The representations to me of the daily language of
several officers at Portsmouth, were so evincive of aversion, if
not hostility, to the national Constitution and government, that
I could not avoid making some changes. IVIr. Whipple is repre-
sented as very artful in imputing individual misfortunes to
measures of administration, and his whole influence to have
been employed against the government, and Mr. Whipple must
take a more decided part before he can get over the prejudices
against him. I never regarded his conduct about the address ;
but his apology for it is a most miserable excuse. If the officers
of government \vill not support it, who will ? I have no ill will
to Mr. Whipple, and no prejudice against him, but I still think
his removal was right.
With great sincerity, &c.
John Adams.
to b. stoddert, secretary of the navy.
Philadelphia, 31 March, 1800.
The President of the United States requests the Secretary of
the Navy to employ some of his clerks in preparing a catalogue
of books for the use of his office. It ought to consist of all the
best writings in Dutch, Spanish, French, and especially in
English, upon the theory and practice of naval architecture,
navigation, gunnery, hydraulics, hydrostatics, and all branches
of mathematics subservient to the profession of the sea. The
lives of all the admirals, English, French, Dutch, or any other
nation, who have distinguished themselves by the boldness and
success of their navigation, or their gallantry and skill in naval
combats. If there are no funds which can be legally applied
by the Secretary to the purchase of such a library, application
ought to be made to Congress for assistance.
31 March, 1800.
The President of the United States requests the Secretary of
the Navy to take immediate measures for carrying into execu-
48 OFFICIAL.
tion the resolution of Congress of the 29th, for presenting to
Captain Thomas Truxtun a gold medal, emblematical of the
late action between the United States frigate Constellation, of
thirty-eight guns, and the French ship of war La Vengeance,
of fifty-four, in testimony of the high sense entertained by Con-
gress of his gallantry and good conduct in the above engage-
ment, wherein an example was exhibited by the captain, officers,
sailors, and mariners, honorable to the American name, and
instructive to its rising navy.
John Adams.
TO J. MCHENRY, SECRETARY OF WAR.
Philadelphia, 31 March, 1800.
The President of the United States requests the Secretary of
War to send him, without delay, a list of the officers of the army,
who were appointed during the last recess of the Senate of the
United States, that the President may be enabled to make their
nominations, as the Constitution requires.
31 March, 1800.
The President of the United States requests of the Secretary
of War immediate information, whether the commissions have
been sent to all the officers of the army or not, and if not, how
many remain to be sent.
THOMAS JOHNSON TO JOHN ADAMS.
Georgetown, 8 April, 1800.
I shall make no excuse, my dear Sir, for writing to you with
frankness. You may judge, from the resolution I have taken
up of entering again the field of political contention, if I have
credit enough to be carried there, that I am strongly impressed
with the idea that we are at an awful crisis.
If our bark was gliding under a pleasant breeze, and the crew
ready and disposed to join their efforts for a happy navigation,
your age and services would entitle you to quit the tiller and
take repose, which I dare say you would willingly do. But
former services, in my opinion, lay you under new obligations,
which cannot consistently be dispensed with, nor honorable
means neglected which may continue you in a situation to be
OFFICIAL. 49
eminently useful. There is a great deal yet to be done to pre-
vent our becoming a mere satellite of a mighty power.
Persuaded that your being in the city this summer, and as
much as you well can, will strengthen and probably extend the
favorable sentiment entertained of you, I entreat you at least
to visit us. I feel something of selfishness in this request. A
personal interview with you would be highly gratifying to me.
The men of '74 are grown scarce. How much, then, ought such
a rarity to be valued, when recommended by intrinsic worth !
I am, &c.
Thomas Johnson.
TO THOMAS JOHNSON.
Philadelphia, 11 April, 1800.
Dear Sir, — I received this morning your favor of the 8th
from Georgetown, with all the pleasure that we usually receive
from seeing the face of an old friend, long esteemed, respected,
and beloved. I envy you, however, that vivacity of youth with
which you \vrite, and even that firm and steady hand, which
appears in every character.
For my own part, I. see no immediate prospect of an awful
crisis more terrifying than I have constantly beheld for forty
years. From the year 1760 to this moment has appeared one
uniform state of doubt, uncertainty, and danger, to me.
Repose is desirable enough for me, but I have been so long a
stranger to it, that I know not whether I should not find it a
mortal enemy.
I know of nothing that would give me more pleasure than to
meet you ; but whether it will be possible for me to be in the
city before November, I know not. If any services I can render
will be useful, I neither want a disposition to render, nor, I hope,
resolution to suffer under them. I am weary, and so are all
men at my age, whether in public or private life. I agree per-
fectly with you, that a great deal is yet to be done to prevent
our becoming a mere satellite to a mighty power. But I will
candidly confess to yovi, I sometimes doubt which is that
mighty power. I think there is danger from two. Nothing
could give me more joy than your resolution to come again
upon the stage, because I know your noble nature so well that
VOL. IX. 5 D
50 OFFICIAL.
it is impossible you should be the dupe of either. It will always
give me pleasure to hear of your welfare, as I am, with great
and sincere esteem, ancient and modern, your friend, &c.
John Adams.
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE, AND HEADS OF DEPARTMENT.
Philadelphia, 23 April, 1800.
Gentlemen, — The President of the United States proposes
to the heads of department a subject, which, although at first
view it may appear of inconsiderable moment, will upon more
mature reflection be found to be of some difficulty, but of great
importance to the honor, dignity, and consistency of the govern-
ment.
In every government of Europe, I believe, there is a gazette
in the service of the government, and a printer appointed,
acknowledged, and avowed by it — in every regular government,
at least. The Gazette of France, before the revolution, answered
the same purpose with the London Gazette in England. Mr.
Strahan is appointed the King's printer by patent, and is the
editor of the London Gazette. This Gazette is said by lawyers
and judges to be primd facie evidence in courts of justice, of
matters of State and of public acts of the government. As it
is published by the authority of the crown, it is the usual way
of notifying such acts to the public, and therefore is entitled to
credit in respect to such matters. It is a high misdemeanor to
publish any thing as from royal authority which is not so. The
Gazette is evidence of the King's proclamations; even the articles
of war, printed by the King's printer, are good evidence of those
articles. Addresses of the subjects, in bodies or otherwise, to
the King, and his answers, are considered as matters of State
when published in the Gazette, and are proved by it, primd facie,
in the King's courts in Westminster Hall. The Gazette is said
to be an authoritative means of proving all acts relating to the
King and the State. Justice Buller asserts, that every thing
which relates to the King, as King of Great Britain, &c., is in
its nature public, and that a gazette which contains any thing
done by his Majesty in his character of King, or which has passed
through his Majesty's hands, is admissible evidence in a court of
law to prove such thing. Without running a parallel between
OFFICIAL. 51
the President of the United States and the King of England, it
is certain that the honor, dignity, and consistency of govern-
ment is of as much importance to the people in one case as the
other. The President must issue proclamations, articles of war,
articles of the navy, and must make appointments in the army,
navy, revenue, and other branches of public service ; and these
ought all to be announced by authority in some acknowledged
gazette. The laws ought to be published in the same. It is
certain that a President's printer must be restrained from publish-
iiig libels, and all paragraphs offensive to individuals, public
bodies, or foreign nations ; but need not be forbid advertise-
ments. The gazette need not appear more than once or twice
a week. Many other considerations will occur to the minds of
the secretaries. The President requests their opinion,
1. Whether a printer can be appointed by the President,
either with or without the advice and consent of the Senate ?
2. Whether a printer can be obtained, without salary or fees,
for the profit which might be made by such a gazette?
3. Where shall we find such a printer ?
It is certain that the present desultory manner of publishing
the laws, acts of the President, and proceedings of the Executive
departments, is infinitely disgraceful to the government and
nation, and in all events must be altered.^
J. MCHENRY, SECRETARY OF WAR, TO JOHN ADAMS.
War Department, 6 May, 1800.
Sir, — I have the honor to request that I may be permitted
to resign the office of secretary of the department of war, and
• The only reply to these questions found among INIr. Adams's papers, is from
Mr. McHenry. Whilst he favors the idea that a public printer should be ap-
pointed, he doubts the power of the President to estabhsh any such officer with
a fixed compensation. All that can be done by the government, would be to
allow some private printer to call himself ^;rm^er lo the President, and to give
him from the several departments such work as belonged to each, at the esta-
blished prices. " A better plan, particularly in view of the proposed removal
to the new seat of government, the city of Washington, where no printer is
understood to reside, would be that a law should be passed authorizing the Pre-
sident to appoint from time to time some fit, trusty, and discreet person, as prin-
ter to the United States, whose duty It should be to print the laws, &c., to be
paid either by a fi.N:ed compensation, or according to the work done."
The want of such an organ has been felt by the government from that day to
this, but none has ever yet been formally established.
52 OFFICIAL.
that my resignation be accepted, to take place on the first day
of June next.
Explanations may be desired of some parts of the business
of the war department, while under my direction, which I shall
be very ready to give, and can more conveniently do so by con-
tinuing in an official situation until the period mentioned. I
shall esteem myself particularly favored by your inquiries rela-
tive to any subject connected with my official duties, because
I shall then have an opportunity to lay before you full informa-
tion of what I have done or directed, together with the reasons
and motives, known best to myself, which induced particular
measures.
Having discharged the duties of Secretary of "War for upwards
of four years with fidelity, unremitting assiduity, and to the
utmost of my abilities, I leave behind me all the records of the
department, exhibiting the principles and manner of my official
conduct, together with not a few difficulties I have had to en-
counter. To these written documents I cheerfully refer my
reputation as an officer and a man.^
I have the honor to be, &c.
James McHenry.
' Much haf? been said respecting the causes of Mr. McHcnry's involuntary
resignation. That he expected a dismission six months sooner, is tolerably clear
from his own letter printed in Mr. Gibbs's work, vol. ii. p. 282. That he had
merited it much earlier, is now proved by the concurring testimony of those who
cried out the most loudly against it, when it happened. So early as July, 1798,
Mr. Hamilton described him as " wholly insufficient for his place, with the addi-
tional misfortune of not having the least suspicion of the fact." Hamilton's
Works, vol. vi. p. 333. In April preceding, Mr. R. G. Harper had prevailed
upon the President to consent to Invite Mr. Hamilton himself to occupy the
post. " The army, under j)roper direction, will put arms into the hands of all our
friends." Hainilton's Works, vol. vl. p. 282. Mr. Hamilton's answer is not
given, but, in the letter to General Washington already quoted, he admits that
Mr. JNIcHenry owed his place to Mr. Adams's forbearance.
" The insufficiency is so great as to leave no probability that the business of
the war department can make any tolerable progress In his hands. This has
been long observed, and has been more than mentioned to the President by
members of Congress. He is not Insensible, I believe, that the execution of the
department does not produce the expected results ; but the case Is of course
delicate and embarrassing."
General Washington in reply says :
" Your opinion respecting the unfitness of a certain gentleman for the office
he holds, accords with mine ; and it is to be regretted, sorely, at this time, that
these opinions ai'c so well founded. I early discovered, after he entered upon
the duties of his office, that his talents were unequal to great exertions or deep
resources. In truth they were not expected ; for the fact is, It was a Hobson's
choice." Hamilton's Works, vol. \i. p. 337.
OFFICIAL. 53
TO T. PICKERING, SECRETARY OF STATE.
Philadelphia, 10 May, 1800.
Sir, — As I perceive a necessity of introducing a change in
the administration of the office of State, I think it proper to
make this communication of it to the present Secretary of State,
that he may have an opportunity of resigning, if he chooses. I
should wish the day on which his resignation is to take place,
to be named by himself I wish for an answer to this letter.
This letter is not found in Mr. Sparks's collection, for the reason given in a
note to vol. xi. p. 285.
Mr. Wok'ott is not a whit more equivocal in his opinion. See two letters in
Gibbs's Memoirs of the Federal Administrations, vol. ii. pp. 101, 315, and another
more decided still, not printed by Mr. Gibbs, in Hamilton's Works, vol. vi. p. 406.
The propriety of the removal being thus established by the evidence of those
claiming to be Mr. McHenry's best friends, and independently of a still more
serious c^uestion touching his abuse of his confidential relation with the Pi'esi-
dent, the only matter remaining to be considered is the secondary one of the
mode in wlaich it was done. Mr. Hamilton has already explained the difficulty
attending Mr. McHenry's utter unconsciousness of his insufficiency ; an uncon-
sciousness strikingly visible in his letters after his dismission. It is clear that he
was a man who could not take a hint. In all probability this it was, that gradu-
ally brought on the personal harshness which terminated his career. It must be
admitted that Mr. Adams was neither so considerate nor so dignified in his case
as he Avas in that of Mr. Pickering. But the object once effected, he seems to
have been the first to regret that it had not been more gently done. To this
Mr. Wolcott, with all his secret malevolence to Mr. Adams, unecpuvocally testi-
fies. Whilst, in a secret letter to Mr. McIIenry, he instigates him to disclose
to Mr. Hamilton, for use in his projected pamphlet against Mr. Adams, the details
of the private conversation during the conference that led to the dismissal, in
another letter to him of the same day, designed for public use, to protect him in
case he was attacked on the score of incompetency, he says : —
" Soon after your intended retirement from the department of war was made
known to me, I waited on the President of the United States on business rela-
ting to the treasury, when the subject of your resignation was voluntarily men-
tioned by him.
" The President said that he considered you a gentleman of agreeable manners,
of extensive information, and great industry ; that he verily believed your hands
were pure, meaning thereby, as I understood him, that he reposed entire con-
fidence in your integrity ; that he was happy in understanding that your cir-
cumstances were affluent, and that the loss of your late office Avould not distress
your family ; and that if any suitable office should become vacant, he should
with pleasure confer it on you." Gibbs's Federal Administrations, vol. ii. p. 410.
Recent disclosures clearly prove that Mr. McHenry had not merited this
generosity. _ He certainly was one, though the least important, of the tliree
cabinet ministers who were untrue to him, and who betrayed his confidence.
Neither does this testimony of Mr. Wolcott seem to have softened his rancor.
He furnished Mr. Hamilton with a part of tlic confidential matter used by him in
his pamphlet, and he entered warmly into the cabal to defeat Mr. Adams's reelec--
tion. It is, however, no more than due to him to add that, of all the parties to it,
his letters betray the most profound sense of the degrading measures they resorted
54 OFFICIAL.
on or before Monday morning, because the nomination of a
successor must be sent to the Senate as soon as they sit.
With esteem, I am, Sir, your most obedient and humble
servant,
John Adams.
T. PICKERING, SECRETARY OF STATE, TO JOHN ADAMS.
Department of State, Philadelphia, 12 May, 1800.
Sir, — I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter, dated
last Saturday, stating that, " as you perceive a necessity of
introducing a change in the administration of the office of State,
you think it proper to make this communication of it to the
present Secretary of State, that he may have an opportunity
of resigning, if he chooses ; " and that " you would wish the
day on which his resignation is to take place to be named by
himself."
Several matters of importance in the office, in which my
agency will be useful, will require my diligent attention until
about the close of the present quarter. I had, indeed, contem-
plated a continuance in office until the 4th of March next ;
when, if Mr. Jefferson were elected President, (an event which, in
your conversation with me last week, you considered as certain,)
I expected to go out, of course. An apprehension of that event
first led me to determine not to remove my family this year to
the city of Washington ; because to establish them there would
oblige me to incur an extraordinary expense which 1 had not
the means of defraying; whereas, by separating myself from
my family, and living there eight or nine months with strict
economy, I hoped to save enough to meet that expense, should
the occasion occur. Or, if I then went out of office, that saving-
to. He desifinates their conduct as " tremulous, timid, feeble, deceptive, and
cowardly. They write private letters. To whom ? To each other."
" They meditate in private. Can good come out of such a system ? If the party
recovers its pristine energy and splendor, shall I ascribe it to such cunning,
paltry, indecisive, back-door conduct?"
For the evidence to sustain all these views, drawn exclusively from the parties
implicated, see O. Wolcott's private letter to J. McHenry, 26 August, 1800,
in Mr. Gibbs's work, vol. ii. p. 409. Also his public letter of the same date,
inclosed in the other, p. 410, which must also be compared with the letter to
Hamilton, p. 416. Also McHenry to Wolcott, in the same work, vol. ii. pp.
384-385, 413.
OFFICIAL. 55
would enable me to subsist my family a few months longer,
and perhaps aid me in transporting them into the woods, where
I had land, though all wild and unproductive, and where, like
my first ancestor in New England, I expected to commence a
settlement on bare creation. I am happy that I now have this
resource, and that those most dear to me have fortitude enough
to look at the scene without dismay, and even without regret.
Nevertheless, after deliberately reflecting on the overture you
have been pleased to make to me, I do not feel it to be my
duty to resign.
^ I have the honor to be, &c.
Timothy Pickering.
TO timothy PICKERING.
Philadelphia, 12 May, 1800.
Sir, — Divers causes and considerations, essential to the
administration of the government, in my judgment, requiring a
change in the department of State, you are hereby discharged
from any further service as Secretary of Stat^.^
John Adams,
President of the United States.
1 This letter closes the official relations of Mr. Pickering to the President.
Construing his duty as a cabinet officer as consistent with a singular latitude in
secretly counteracting the policy and betraying the purposes of his chief, he
seems at the same time, by his refusal to resign, and his complaints afterwards,
to have overlooked the doctrine which he himself laid down less than three years
before. In his letter to Mr. Monroe, of the 24th July, 1797, he says, among
many other things quite applicable to his own case ; —
"Again, the want of confidence, from whatever cause it may arise, is a good
reason for changing a diplomatic agent. If he is found on experience to be
deficient in judgment, skill, or diligence, or if circumstances inspire a reasonable
doubt of the sincerity of his views, he cannot with prudence be continued, for it
is essential that there should be full confidence in him."
INIuch was said in many of the writings of the time, and Mr. Jefferson alludes
to it often in his letters, of the want of system of Mr. Adams's administration.
The cause of much of this difficulty is now clearly to be traced to these cabinet
officers, who were never really disposed to cooperate with the chief, but were
constantly acting under an opposite influence from without. The accession of
Messrs. Marshall and Dexter to the cabinet marks a restoration of system and
harmonious action.
Many years after this removal of Mr. Pickering, that gentleman, in under-
taking to account for the act, labored to prove the existence of unworthy motives
for it in Mr. Adams. And Mr. Gibbs, in his late partisan work, though mani-
festly betraying his own disbelief of them, has not abstained from recording
them. "As charges," he says, " they are at any rate matter of history." "What
56 OFFICIAL.
TO J. MCHENRY, SECRETARY OF WAR.
Philadelphia, 15 May, 1800.
Sir, — I request you to transmit copies of the law for re-
ducing the twelve regiments, which passed yesterday, to Major-
Generals Hamilton and Pinckney, and also to the commandants
of brigades, with orders to the major-generals to make imme-
diate arrangements for reducing those regiments on the four-
teenth day of June.
I pray you, also, in concert with the Secretary of the Treasury,
to make seasonable preparation for punctual compliance with
the other provision of the law, by advancing the three months'
pay to the officers and men.
TO THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL, AND THE DISTRICT-ATTORNEY OF
PENNSYLVANIA.
Philadelphia, 16 May, 1800.
I transmit you a copy of the resolution of the Senate of the
United States, passed in Congress on the 14th of this month,
by which I am requested to instruct the proper law officers to
commence and carry on a prosecution against William Duane,
editor of a newspaper called the Aurora, for certain false,
defamatory, scandalous, and malicious publications in the said
newspaper of the 19th of February last past, tending to defame
the Senate of the United States, and to bring them into con-
tempt and disrepute, and to excite against them the hatred of
the good people of the United States. In compliance with this
request, I now instruct you, gentlemen, to commence and carry
on the prosecution accordingly.
With great esteem, &c.
John Adams.
sort of history that -n-ould be, which is made up of unfounded charges against
public men anywhere, and especially in America, it is easy to comprehend. In
the present instance, the whole of them are swept away by the letter of Mr.
Stoddert, 27th October, 1811, giving many particulars respecting the causes
assigned for the removal, and by those of Robert and of Samuel Smith, the parties
implicated by Mr. Pickering, 30th November, 1st December, 1811, which are
inserted in their places in the tenth volume. Gibbs's Federal Administrations,
vol. ii. p. 353.
OFFICIAL. 57
TO O. WOLCOTT, SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.
Philadelphia, 17 May, 1800.
Sir, — I thank you for your report of the 16th of this month,
and for your early attention to the important subject of the loan.
I have subscribed, and send you herewith, an authorization to
borrow to the amount of the law ; but if the public exigencies
can be satisfied with a part of it, your own public spirit of
economy will induce you to confine yourself to such part.
The rate of interest is a subject of great anxiety to me. When
I recollect that I borrowed for this country near a million ster-
ling, at a rate of interest at from four and a half to six per cent.,
or thereabout, more than fifteen years ago, when this nation had
not two thirds of its present population, when it had a very
feeble government, no revenue, no taxes, by barely pledging the
faith of the people, which faith has been most punctually and
religiously kept, I cannot but suspect that some advantage is
taken of this government by demanding exorbitant interest. As
Great Britain, with her immense burdens, after so long and
wasting a war, is able to borrow at a more moderate interest, I
entertain a hope that we may at last abate somewhat of a
former interest.
As I know your zeal for the interest of your country to be
equal to my own, I have entire confidence in your exertions,
that we may take up as little as possible of the sum, and at as
low an interest as can be obtained.
TO THE HEADS OF DEPARTMENT.
Philadelphia, 20 May, 1800.
1. Among the three criminals under sentence of death, is there
any discrimination in the essential circumstances of their cases,
which would justify a determination to pardon or reprieve one
or two, and execute the other ?
2. Is the execution of one or more so indispensably demanded
by public justice and by the security of the public peace, that
mercy cannot be extended to all three, or any two, or one ?
58 OFFICIAL.
3. Will the national Constitution acquire more confidence in
the minds of the American people by the execution than by the
pardon of one or more of the offenders ?
4. Is it clear beyond all reasonable doubt that the crime of
which they stand convicted, amounts to a levying of war against
the United States, or, in other words, to treason?
5. Is there any evidence of a secret correspondence or com-
bination wdth other anti-federalists of any denomination in
other States in the Union, or in other parts of this State, to rise
in force against the execution of the law for taxing houses, &c.,
or for opposing the commissioners in general in the execution
of their offices ?
6. Quo animo was this insurrection ? Was it a design of
general resistance to all law, or any particular law ? Or was it
particular to the place and persons?
7. Was it any thing more than a riot, high-handed, aggra-
vated, daring, and dangerous indeed, for the purpose of a rescue?
This is a high crime, but can it strictly amount to treason ?
8. Is there not great danger in establishing such a construc-
tion of treason, as may be applied to every sudden, ignorant,
inconsiderate heat, among a part of the people, wrought up by
political disputes, and personal or party animosities ?
9. Will not a career of capital executions for treason, once
opened, without actual bloodshed or hostility against any mili-
tary force of government, inflict a deep wound in the minds of
the people, inflame their animosities, and make them more
desperate in sudden heats, and thoughtless riots in elections, and
on other occasions where political disputes run high, and intro-
duce a more sanguinary disposition among them ?
10. Is not the tranquillity in the western counties, since the
insurrection there, and the subsequent submission to law, a pre-
cedent in favor of clemency?
11. Is there any probability that a capital execution will have
any tendency to change the political sentiments of the people ?
12. Will not clemency have a greater tendency to correct their
errors ?
13. Are not the fines and imprisonments, imposed and suffered,
a sufficient discouragement, for the present, of such crimes ?
John Adams.
OFFICIAL. 59
May not the long imprisonment of Fries, the two solemn,
awful trials, his acknowledgment of the justice of his sentence,
his professions of deep repentance, and promises of obedience,
be accepted, and turned more to the advantage of government
and the public peace, than his execution ?
THE HEADS OF DEPARTMENT TO THE PRESIDENT.
Philadelphia, 20 May, 1800.
Having considered the questions proposed by the President
for our consideration, we respectfully submit the following
opinions.
That the intent of the insurgents in Pennsylvania, in 1798,
was to prevent the execution of the law, directing the valuation
of houses and lands, and the enumeration of slaves, in the par-
ticular district of country where they resided. That we know
of no combination in other States, and presume that no com-
bination, pervading the whole State of Pennsylvania, was actually
formed. We believe, however, that if the government had not
adopted prompt measures, the spirit of insurrection would have
rapidly extended.
We are of opinion that the crime committed by Fries, Heyney,
and Getman, amounted to treason, and that no danger can arise
to the community from the precedents already established by
the judges upon this subject. We cannot form a certain judg-
ment of the eflfect upon public opinion, of suffering the law
to have its course, but we think it must be beneficial, by inspir-
ing the well disposed with confidence in the government, and
the malevolent and factious with terror.
The Attorney- General and the Secretary of the Navy, how-
ever, believe that the execution of one will be enough to show the
power of the laws to punish, and may be enough for example,
the great end of punishment, and that Fries deserves most to
suffer ; because, though all are guilty, and all have forfeited
their lives to the justice of their country, he was the most dis-
tinguished in the commission of the crime. The Secretary of
the Treasury perceives no good ground for any distinction in
the three cases, and he believes that a discrimination, instead
of being viewed as an act of mercy, would too much resemble
60 OFFICIAL.
a sentence against an unfortunate individual. He also believes
that the mercy of government has been sufficiently manifested
by the proceedings of the Attorney of the United States, and
that the cause of humanity will be most effectually promoted
by impressing an opinion that those who are brought to trial,
and convicted of treason, will not be pardoned.
Charles Lee,
Oliver Wolcott.
Ben. Stoddert.
The Attorney-General and Secretary of the Navy beg leave
to add, as their opinion, that it will be more just and more wise
that all should suffer the sentence of the law, than that all
should be pardoned.
Ben. Stoddert.
Charles Lee.
TO C. LEE, secretary OF STATE, PRO TEM.
Philadelphia, 21 May, 1800.
Sir, — I received yesterday the opinion of yourself, the Se-
cretary of the Treasury, and the Secretary of the Navy, on the
case of the prisoners under sentence of death for treason, formed,
as I doubt not, under the full exercise of integrity and humanity.
Nevertheless, as I differ in opinion, I must take on myself alone
the responsibility of one more appeal to the humane and gene-
rous natures of the American people.
I pray you, therefore, to prepare for my signature, this morn-
ing, a pardon for each of the criminals, John Fries, Frederic
Heyney, and John Getman.^
I pray you, also, to prepare the form of a proclamation of a
general pardon of all treasons, and conspiracies to commit
treasons, heretofore committed in the three offending counties,
1 " Fries, It Is said, opened a tin-ware store In Philadelphia, where, profiting
by the custom his notoriety drew to him, he acquired a respectable fortune, and
a respectable character." Wharton's State Trials, cVc, p. 648, note.
For the pardon of Fries, Mr. Adams was attacked by Mr. Hamilton and his
friends as guilty of " a virtual dereliction of the friends of the government."
Posterity may perhaps judge that It was more wise, as well as humane, to save
the criminal for a respectable life, selling tin-ware, than to make of him a politi-
cal martyr, and a precedent for vindictive retribution.
OFFICIAL. 61
in opposition to the law laying taxes on houses, &c., that tran-
quillity may be restored to the minds of those people, if possible.
I have one request more; that you would consult the judge,
and the late and present attorneys of this district, concerning the
circumstances of guilt and punishment of those now under sen-
tence for fines and imprisonment, and report to me a list of the
names of such, if there are any, as may be proper objects of the
clemency of government.
With great esteem, I am, &c.
John Adams.
TO ALEXANDER HAMILTON.
Philadelphia, 22 May, 1800.
Inclosed is a copy of a letter received this morning from
Colonel Smith. I am at present at a loss to judge of it. Will
you be so kind, without favor or affection, as to give me your
candid opinion of it ? Whether his request can be granted, in
the whole or in part, without injustice to other officers ; and
whether it is consistent with the military ideas. I pray your
answer as soon as possible.^
I am, &:c.
John Adams.
TO W. S. SMITH.
Philadelphia, 26 May, 1800.
Dear Sir, — Upon the receipt of your letter of the 21st, I
sent a copy of it to General Hamilton, and the original to Mr.
McHenry, and asked their candid opinion of it, without favor
or affection. From General Hamilton I have as yet received no
answer. From Mr. McHenry I have the inclosed, which is, I
believe, a very honest answer ; and, although I am not of his
opinion in all points, I think there is enough in it to convince
1 A letter to the same purport was sent to the Secretary of War.
Mr. Hamilton's answer is found in the collection of his works, vol. v. p. 430.
Colonel Smith had solicited to be appointed to the command of the second
regiment of artillerists and engineers, and to be allowed the selection of a major
and full battalion of men from his actual command, to complete the regiment.
VOL. IX. 6
62 OFFICIAL.
you that it would be highly improper in me, and therefore im-
possible, to adopt your project.^
I am, with affection to Mrs. Smith and Miss Caroline, sin-
cerely yours,
John Adams.
TO BENJAMIN STODDERT.
Philadelphia, 26 May, 1800.
Sir, — I hereby request you on the 1st of June, or whenever
Mr. McHenry shall leave the war office, to take upon you the
charge of that office, and I hereby invest you with full power
and authority to exercise all the functions of secretary of the
department of war, and charge you with all the duties and
obhgations attached by law to that officer, until a successor
regularly appointed and commissioned shall appear to relieve
you.
I am, &c.
John Adams.
B. STODDERT TO JOHN ADAMS.
Philadelphia, 2C May, 1800.
Sir, — I have the honor of your direction of this day's date,
for me to take upon myself the charge of the war office, and to
exercise all the functions of secretary of the department of war,
from the first day of June, or from the time Mr. McHenry shall
leave the office, until a successor regularly appointed and com-
missioned shall appear to relieve me ; which I shall attend to
with great cheerfulness, but under the hope that I may be soon
relieved from the duties enjoined me.
I have the honor to be &c., &c.
Ben. Stoddert.
1 Mr. McHenry doubted the power of the President to make the appointment,
for the reasons expressed in a former letter. Moreover, although speaking highly
of Colonel Smith, as an officer of Infantry, he questioned the fitness of trans-
ferring him to the command of a corps of artillery. This last argument seems
to have decided the point. See vol. viii. pp. 632, 647.
OFFICIAL 63
TO ALEXANDER HAMILTON.
Philadelpliia, 20 June, 1800.
SiRj — The itinerant life I have led^ has prevented me from
acknowledging the receipt of your favor of May 24th till this
time. Your sentiments are very satisfactory to me, and will be
duly attended to. I anticipate criticism in every thing which
relates to Colonel Smith ; but criticism, now criticized so long, I
regard no more than " Great George's birth-day song." Colonel
Smith served through the war with high applause of his supe-
riors. He has served, abroad in the diplomatic corps, at home
as marshal and supervisor, and now as commandant of a bri-
gade. These are services of his own, not mine. His claims
are his own. I see no reason or justice in excluding him from
all service, w^hile his comrades are all ambassadors or generals,
merely because he married my daughter.^ 1 am, &c.
John Adams.
TO J. MARSHALL, SECRETARY OF STATE.
Quincy, 11 July, 1800.
Dear Sir, — I received only last night your favor of the 30th
June. There is no part of the administration of our govern-
ment which has given me so much discontent as the negotiation
in the Mediterranean, our ill success in which I attribute to the
diffidence of the agents and ministers employed in them, in
soliciting aid from the English and the French and the Prus-
sians. M. D'Engestrom has too much reason to reproach us,
1 Mr. Adams had been on a visit to Washington, the proposed seat of govern-
ment.
2 Colonel Smith was soon afterwards appointed surveyor and inspector for
the port of New York. The propriety of embracing or of excluding relatives
in the consideration of appointments to office, opens questions upon which per-
sons may honestly differ in opinion. One rule has been adopted by some, and
another by others, of the Presidents. Mr. Adams followed one, and his son the
other. There can be no doubt in cases of the selection of unworthy or incom-
petent persons. And every President who assumes the responsibility of appoint-
ing a relation, subjects the fitness of his choice to a severe scrutiny. Considered
in this light, Mr. Adams is responsible for the transfer of his son, John Quincy
Adams, from one diplomatic mission to another, for the appointments given to
Colonel Smith, and I'or the selection of his wife's nephew, William Crauch, to be
chief justice of the Circuit Court of the district of Columbia.
64 OFFICIAL.
or to commiserate us, for paying the triple of the sums given hy
Sweden and Denmark. As, however, the promises of the United
States, although made to their hurt, ought to be fulfilled with
good faith, I know not how far we can accede to the proposition
of uniting with Sweden and Denmark, or appointing, in concert
with them and others, convoys for their and our trade. Convoys
for our own trade I suppose we may appoint at any time, and
in any seas, to protect our commerce, according to our treaties
and the law of nations. If, indeed, the Barbary powers, or any
of them, should break their treaties with us, and recommence
hostilities on our trade, we may then be at liberty to make any
reasonable arrangement with Sweden or Denmark. You will
be at no loss to instruct Mr. Adams to give a polite and respect-
ful answer to Mr. D'Engestrom, according to these principles,
if you approve them.i
TO B. STODDERT, SECRETARY OF THE NAVY.
Quincy, 23 July, 1800.
Dear Sir, — I received this morning your favor of the 12th,
and thank you for the summary of the stations and destinations
of the navy. At the same time I received your other letter of
the same date, and have read all its inclosures, which I return
with this. Nothing affects me so much as to see complaints
against officers who have distinguished themselves by their
vigilance, activity, and bravery in the service, as Maley has
done; but the complaints must not be rejected without inquiry.
I leave this business to your wisdom, as well as the other com-
plaints against other officers.
The transgression of the British captain in opening the letters
of Dr. Stevens to Captain Talbot, can be redressed only by a
representation to the court of St. James, where so many circum-
stances of justification, or excuse, or palliation will occur, that I
doubt whether it is expedient to take any trouble about it. If
you think otherwise, you may furnish the Secretary of State
with copies, and he may instruct Mr. King to acquaint the
1 This proposition to unite with Sweden and Denmark in keeping a naval
force in the Mediterranean for the protection of the trade of the three nations,
had been made by Count d'Engestrom, through Mr. J. Q. Adams, at Berlin.
OFFICIAL. 65
ministry with them. It is not worth while to make any vehe-
ment representation about it.^
With great respect, &c.
John Adams.
TO S, DEXTER, SECRETARY OF WAR.
Quincy, 25 July, 1800.
I received last night, and read with great pleasure, your letter
of the 16th of July. I am very much pleased with your plan
for executing the existing laws for the instruction of the artil-
lerists and engineers. I am very ready to appoint the whole
number of cadets provided for by law, namely, two for each
company, or sixty-four in all, as soon as proper candidates
present themselves ; and the whole of the four teachers and two
engineers, if you are prepared to recommend suitable persons.
It is my desire that you take the earliest measures for providing
all the necessary books, instruments, and apparatus, authorized
by law, for the use and benefit of the artillerists and engineers.
I think with you that it will be prudent to begin by appointing
two teachers and an engineer, and I pray you to make inquiry for
proper characters, and to take measures to induce young men
to enter the service as cadets, collect them together, and form
a regular school, and cause the battalions to be instructed in
rotation at some regular stations. You may assure the cadets,
that, in future, officers will be taken from the most deserving of
their members, if any should be found fit for an appointment.
1 agree with the Secretary of the Navy, that it would be
highly useful to the navy, that midshipmen be admitted into
the school by courtesy. Yet there ovight to be a school on board
every frigate. Thirty persons have been taught navigation, and
other sciences connected with the naval service, on board the
Boston during her first cruise.
1 wish you may easily find teachers. What think you of
Captain Barron for one ? Every one speaks well of Mr. Bureau
de Pusy. But I have an invincible aversion to the appoint-
' Mr. Stoddert had expressed the opinion that this act of the British Captain
" appeared one of those things, difficult to condemn, and still more difficult to
justify" " His letters did not ehow him to be a man of much understandinor."
6* E
66 OFFICIAL.
ment of foreigners, if it can be avoided. It mortifies the honest
pride of our officers, and damps their ardor and ambition. I
had rather appoint the teachers, and form the schools, and take
time to consider of an engineer.^
TO J. MARSHALL, SECRETARY OF STATE.
Quincy, 30 July, 1800.
I have received your favor of the 21st, and have read the
respectable recommendations inclosed, in favor of Mr. Lloyd
Beal and Mr. Bent Bowlings to be marshal of Maryland. I
return all these letters to you in this. With the advantages of
Mr. Thomas Chase, in the opportunity to consult his father and
Mr. Martin, I still think that his appointment is as likely to
benefit the public as that of any of the respectable candidates
would be. Your knowledge of persons, characters, and circum-
stances, are so much better than mine, and my confidence in
your judgment and impartiality so entire, that I pray you, if
Mr. Chase should not appear the most eligible candidate to you,
that you would give the commission to him whom you may
prefer.
TO J. MARSHALL, SECRETARY OF STATE.
Quincy, 31 July, 1800.
In the night of the 29th, your favor of the 21st was left at
my house. Mr. King's letters shall be soon considered. At
present 1 shall confine myself to the despatch from our envoys
in France. The impression made upon me by these communi-
cations is the same with that which they appear by your letter
to have made on you. There are not sufficient grounds on
which to form any decisive opinion of the result of the mission.
But there are reasons to conjecture that the French government
may be inclined to explore all the resources of their diplomatic
skill, to protract the negotiation. The campaign in Europe may
have some weight, but the progress of the election in America
1 This is the foundation of the military academy at West Point.
OFFICIAL. 67
may have much more. There is reason to believe that the
communications between the friends of France in Europe and
America are more frequent and constant, as well as more secret,
than ours; and there is no reason to doubt that the French
government is flattered with full assurances of a change at the
next election, which will be more favorable to their views.
McNeil, it appears, was arrived at Havre the latter part of May.
Our envoys will probably insist on definitive and categorical
answers, and come home, according to their instructions, either
with or without a treaty. On this supposition, we need say no
more upon this subject.
Another supposition is, however, possible, and, in order to
guard against that, I shall propose to your consideration, and
that of the heads of department, the propriety of writing to our
envoys, by the way of Holland, and England or Hamburg, or
any other more expeditious and certain conveyance. The ques-
tion is, what we shall write. There are but two points, which
appear to me to deserve a further attention, and indeed their
present instructions are sufficient upon these heads. I always
expected that our envoys would be hard pressed to revive the
old treaty, to save its anteriority, as they say they shall be. I
cannot see, however, that we can relax the instruction on that
head. Perhaps it may be necessary to repeat and confirm it.
The other point relates to a discontinuance of our naval protec-
tion of our commerce, and to opening our commerce with
France. But we have no official or other authentic information
that the French have done any thing to justify or excuse us in
the smallest relaxation. And, indeed, nothing they can do,
short of a treaty, would justify me in taking one step. I there-
fore think that our envoys may be instructed to be as explicit
as decency and delicacy will admit, in rejecting all propositions
of the kind.
I return you all the papers relative to this subject.
TO J. MARSHALL, SECRETARY OF STATE.
Quincy, 31 July, 1800.
Last night the consul of Spain, Mr. Stoughton, came out to
Quincy upon the important errand of delivering to me in my
68 OFFICIAL.
own hand, according to his own account of his orders, the
inclosed letter, demanding of the government a fulfilment of the
5th article of our treaty with Spain.^ Although I see no suffi-
cient reason in this case for deviating from the ordinary course
of business, I shall take no exception to this proceeding on that
account, but I desire you to communicate this letter to the Se-
cretary at "War, and concert with him the proper measures to be
taken. Orders, I think, should be sent to Mr. Hawkins and to
General Wilkinson, to employ every means in their power to
preserve the good faith according to the stipulation in this 5th
article of the treaty with Spain. And I also desire you would
write a civil and respectful answer to this letter of the Chevalier,
still the minister of the King of Spain, assuring him of the
sincere friendship of the government, for the Spanish govern-
ment and nation, and of our determination to fulfil with perfect
good faith the stipulations in the treaty, and informing him that
orders have been given, or shall be immediately given, to the
officers of the United States, civil or military, to take all the
measures in their power for that purpose.
TO J. MARSHALL, SECRETARY OF STATE.
Quincy, 1 August, 1800.
Dear Sir, — I have twice read the despatch of Mr. King,
No. 67, inclosed in your favor of the 21st of July. I am glad
to see that Lord Grenville expressed his opinion, that the new
board ought to proceed in a different manner from their prede-
cessors, by deciding cases singly, one after another, instead of
attempting to decide by general resolves and in classes.
The idea of paying a gross sum to the British government in
lieu of, and in satisfaction for, the claims of the British creditors,
seems to me to merit attentio)i and mature deliberation. There
Avill be great difficulties attending it, no doubt. How can we
form an estimate that will satisfy the American government
and the British government ? How shall the claims of British
creditors be extinguished or barred from recovery in our courts
1 For the protection of the Spanish territory from the incursions of the In-
dians.
OFFICIAL. 69
of law ? Shall the claim of the creditor be transferred to our
government, and how ? or shall it be a total extinguishment of
debt and credit between the parties ? How will the British
government apportion the sum among the British creditors ?
This, however, is their affair. You ask an important question,
whether such an arrangement can afford just cause of discon-
tent to France. But I think it must be answered in the nega-
tive. Our citizens are in debt to British subjects. We surely
have a right to pay our honest debts in the manner least incon-
venient to ourselves, and no foreign power has any thing to do
with it. I think I should not hesitate on this account. The
difficulty of agi-eeing upon a sum is the greatest; but I am
inclined to think this may be overcome. If nothing of this kind
can be agreed on, and the British government refuse all explana-
tions, I think that good faith will oblige us to try another board ;
and I have so little objection to the modes of appointing a new
board, suggested to Mr. King by our government or by the
British government, that I am content to leave it to Mr. King
to do the best he can. I shall keep the copy of Mr. King's des-
patch. No. 67, presuming that you have the original.
TO J. MARSHALL, SECRETARY OF STATE.
Quincy, 2 August, 1800.
Dear Sir, — Last night I received your favor of the 24th
of July. The letter to Mr. Adams, dated the 24th of July, I
have read, and as I see no reason to desire any alteration in it,
I shall give it to General Lincoln, the collector at Boston, to
be by him sent to Hamburg or Amsterdam by the first good
opportunity.^ The duplicate and triplicate you may send by
such opportunities as may be presented to you. Mr. King's
despatches, Nos. 71 and 72, I have read, and, if you think proper,
you may authorize Mr. King, if he thinks it proper, to communi-
cate to the court, in any manner he thinks most decent, the
1 Mr. Marshall had expressed a desire that it should take this course. But
he says ; —
" I transmit it to you, because there are in it some sentiments further than
those contained in your letter. Should you wish any change, be pleased to note
it, and return the letter."
70 OFFICIAL.
congratulations of his government, and, if he pleases, of the
President, on the King's fortunate escape from the attempt of
an assassin.
The mighty bubble, it seems, is burst, of a projected combi-
nation of all the north of Europe against France. This mighty
design, which was held up in terror before my eyes to intimidate
me from sending envoys to France, is evaporated in smoke.
Indeed, I never could hear it urged against the mission to France
without laughter.
The jewels for Tunis are a more serious object. When I read
over all the despatches from the Barbary States, I remember
your predecessor consulted me concerning these jewels. His
opinion was, that it was best to make the present, rather than to
hazard a rupture. After the expenditure of such great sums, I
thought with him that it would be imprudent to hazard an
interruption of the peace on account of these jewels, and I
presume he w^rote to Mr. Eaton or Mr. Smith accordingly. I
am still of the same opinion.
I see no objection against requesting Mr. Smith, and all the
consuls in the Barbary States, to keep Mr, King informed of the
general state of affairs. It will be of service to the public that
our minister at London should know as much information as
possible concerning our affairs in those countries. I return Mr.
King's despatches, 71 and 72.
TO B. STODDERT, SECRETARY OF THE NAVY.
Quincy, 3 August, 1800.
Dear Sir, — I knoAV not whether the inclosed letter from
Lady Catherine Duer has not excited too much tenderness in
my feelings, but I cannot refrain from inclosing it to you, and
recommending it to your serious consideration. If it is possible,
without material injury to the discipline of the navy, to accept
of the resignation of this unhappy youth, I pray you to do it.
I had almost said that this letter, at first reading, excited as
much of a temporary indignation against the captain, for suffer-
ing these dinners at St. Kitts, as it has of a permanent pity for
an unfortunate family. Captain Little has returned without
OFFICIAL. 71
the loss of a man by sickness, and with a ship in perfect health,
only by keeping always at sea.
TO O. WOLCOTT, SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.
Quincy, 6 August, 1800.
Dear Sir, — In answer to your letter of the 26th of July, I have
to inform you that although you omitted to inclose to me the
letter from John Cowper, Esquire, as you intended, yet as there
are no candidates for the office, that I know of, that ought to
excite any hesitation, I am well satisfied that you should apply
to the Secretary of State for commissions for Mr. Claude
Thompson, to be collector of the customs, for the district of
Brunswick in Georgia, and inspector of the revenue for said
port, provided you are satisfied with Mr. Cowper's recommend-
ation.
To show you the passions that are continually excited by the
appointments and dismissions we are so often obliged to make,
I inclose a letter I received last night from Mr. Jabez Bowen
at Augusta. Such are the reproaches to which the most up-
right actions of our lives are liable I^
TO J. MARSHALL, SECRETARY OF STATE.
Quincy, 7 August, 1800.
I have just received your favor of July 29th. The merit of
Judge Chase, of which I have been a witness at times for six
and twenty years, are very great in my estimation, and if his
sons are as well qualified as others, it is quite consistent with
my principles to consider the sacrifices and services of a father
1 Just at this time, the officer to whom this letter was addressed, was engaging
in the preparation of the materials for the use of Mr. Hamilton in the deliberate
attack he was meditating upon Mr. Adams. Mr. Hamilton's letter inviting him
to execute this task, and his reply, disclose the motives of the actors not less
than their sense of the moral obstacles in their way. They also establish the
fact that the shape of the attack was the result of cool and concerted hostility,
rather than the impulse of self-defence under which it is declared to have been
made. Gibbs's Federal Administrations, vol. ii. pp. 397, 416.
72 OFFICIAL.
in weighing the pretensions of a son. The old gentleman will
not last very long, and it can hardly be called accumulating
offices in a family to appoint the son of a judge of the United
States marshal of a particular State. However, I have so
much deference for the opinion of Mr. Stoddert, especially in an
appointment in his own State, that I will wave my own incli-
nation in favor of his judgment, and consent to the appointment
of Major David Hopkins.
TO J. MARSHALL, SECRETARY OF STATE.
Quincy, 7 August, 1800.
Dear Sir, — I inclose to you a letter from Governor Trum-
bull, of Connecticut, a petition for a pardon from Isaac Wil-
liams, in prison at Hartford, for privateering under French
colors. His petition is seconded by a number of very respect-
able people. I inclose many other papers relative to the subject,
put into my hands yesterday by a young gentleman from Nor-
wich, his nephew. The man's generosity to American prisoners,
his refusal to act, and resigning his command, when he was
ordered to capture American vessels, his present poverty and
great distress, are arguments in favor of a pardon, and I own I
feel somewhat inclined to grant it. But I will not venture on
that measure without your advice and that of your colleagues.
I pray you to take the opinions of the heads of department
upon these papers, and if they advise to a pardon, you may
send me one.^
With high esteem, &c.
John Adams.
1 The trial of Isaac Williams is found in Wharton's State Trials, ^c, pp. 652-
658, with a carefully prepared note touching the difficult question of expatria-
tion, which can scarcely yet be pronounced settled in America. Mr. Marshall,
in his reply to the above letter, dated the 16th, says ; —
" The petition of Isaac Williams, with the accompanying documents, was, in
conformity with your direction, laid before the heads of clepartment, and by their
unanimous opinion the fines are remitted. I have inclosed his pardon to the
marshal for the district of Connecticut."
OFFICIAL. 73
TO J. MARSHALL, SECRETARY OF STATE.
Quincy, 11 August, 1800.
On Saturday I received your favor of the 26th ultimo. The
German letter proposing to introduce into this country a com-
pany of schoolmasters, painters, poets, &c., all of them disciples
of Mr. Thomas Paine, will require no answer. I had rather
countenance the introduction of Ariel and Caliban, with a troop
of spirits the most mischievous from fairy land. The direction
to deliver the Sandwich^ to the Spanish minister, on the requi-
sition of the King of Spain, as the case is stated, no doubt
accurately, in your letter, I believe was right ; and it was better
to do it promptly, than to wait for my particular orders in a case
so plain. Respecting Bowles, I wrote you on the 31st of July,
that I thought General Wilkinson and Mr. Hawkins should be
written to. I now add that I think the governors of Georgia,
Tennessee, and the Mississippi territory should be written to,
to employ all the means in their power to preserve the good
faith of the United States, according to the fifth article of the
treaty with Spain. How far it will be proper to order General
Wilkinson to cooperate with the Spanish government or mili-
tary forces, it will be proper for the heads of department to
consider. I can see no objection against ordering them to join
in an expedition against Bowles, wherever he may be, in concert
with the Spanish forces, at their request. The only danger
would arise from misunderstandings and disagreements between
the officers or men. Jn my letter of the 31st ultimo I also
requested you to give a civil answer to the Chevalier, assuring
him of our sincere friendship for the Spanish government and
nation, and of our resolution to fulfil the treaty with good faith.
This letter I hope you received.
On the 1st of August I wrote you on the subject of a sum in
gross to be paid, instead of going through all the chicanery,
which may be practicable under the treaty .^ I most perfectly
agree with you and the heads of department, that the proposi-
tion merits serious attention. My only objection to it is one
that cannot be seriously mentioned. I am afraid that, as soon
' A vessel captured by Captain Talbot in a Spanish port of St. Domingo.
2 The claims of British subjects under the sixth article of the British treaty.
VOL. IX. 7
74 OFFICIAL.
as this point of dispute is removed, such is their habitual de-
light in wrangling with us, they will invent some other. Some
pretext or other of venting their spleen and ill humor against
us they will always find. This, however, cannot be gravely
urged as a reason against settling this quarrel. I am willing
you should write to Mr. King instructions on this head. Take
the opinions, however, of the heads of department on the letter,
before you send it. If they are unanimous with you for going
as far as a million, in the latitude to be given to Mr. King in
the negotiation, I will agree to it.^
TO JOHN TRUMBULL.
Quincy, 12 August, 1800.
Dear Sir, — A letter from my old friend Trumbull is always
so cheering a cordial to my spirits, that I could almost rejoice
in the cause which produced yours of the 6th. The gentleman
you allude to did, it is true, make me a visit at Ncav Haven.
It was not unexpected, for it was not the first or second mark
of attention that I have received from him, at the same place.
On this occasion his deportment was polite, and his conversation
easy, sensible, and agreeable. I understood from him, what I
well knew before and always expected, that there had been
some uneasiness and some severe criticisms in Connecticut on
account of the late removal of the late Secretary of State ; but
he mentioned no names, nor alluded to persons or places. No
such insinuations concerning Hartford, as you have heard,
escaped his lips.^ I had for many years had it in contempla-
tion to take the road of the sea coast, and I believe that for
1 Mr. Marshall in his reply, dated the 23d, writes ; —
" I understand your opinion to be that the explanatory articles, if attainable,
are preferred to any other mode of accommodating the differences which pro-
duced the dissolution of the board lately sitting at Philadelphia; and that the
most eligible mode is the substitution of a sum in gross as a compensation for
the claims of the creditors of the United States. On this idea the letter to
Mr. King is drawn. For many reasons I am myself decidedly of the same
opinion, and I believe there is with respect to it no difference among the heads
of department."
2 Mr. Trumbull had written to know whether the stories in circulation were
true, that Mr. Adams had been induced to change his course from Hartford to
New London by reason of the representations made by the gentleman referred
OFFICIAL. 75
many years I have never stopped at New Haven, without mak-
ing some inquiries concerning the roads and inns. The gentle-
man in question had just returned from New London, and
assured me the road was good, the accommodations at the
public houses not bad, and the passage of the ferry neither
dangerous nor inconvenient to any but the ferrymen. He
added, that he had heard people at several places on that route
observe, that I had never seen it, that they wished to see me
that way, and that the distance to my own house in Quincy
was ten or twelve miles less, than the other. An economy of
a dozen miles to an old man, who was already weary with a
journey of six or seven hundred miles, was an object of atten-
tion, and that way I took. I never entertained nor conceived a
suspicion, that I should not meet the same cordial reception at
Hartford as usual. There was some conversation concerning
constitutions and administration, rather free, but very cool and
decent, without any personal or party allusions, which gave me
an opinion of the correctness of his judgment, which I had not
before. But as these were private conversations, I do not think
it necessary, if it could be justifiable, to mention them. Who
is it says, in the Old Testament, I will go out and be a lying
spirit among them ? ^
With affectionate esteem, dear Sir, your much pained friend,
John Adams.
to, of the hostility felt to him at the former place. la this connection Mr. T.
says; —
" In fact, had you given Hartford the honor of a visit, you would have been
met from all parties with more than usual marks of attention and respect. Many
were desirous of convincing you that they did not consider the President's exer-
tion of his constitutional right of displacing a subordinate executive officer, as a
matter of national concern ; that wlule they felt no dissatisfaction at the conduct
of administration in public and consequential measures, no minute clamors could
shake their confidence ; and that of the propriety or necessity of the measure,
they pretended not at that time to be possessed of the evidence, or the right,
which could enable them to judge or decide."
- Mr. Adams was not fated to have his own measure meted to him by others.
A specimen of the manner in which he was treated, in this very instance, is dis-
closed in a letter of Chauncey Goodrich to Oliver AVolcott, still Secretary of the
Treasury. The writer warns his correspondent, that the person to whom this
letter is addressed, described as " our friend Trumbull, remains as firmly as ever
attached to his old master." Noah Webster, too, is not well affected to the
cabal. Gibbs's Memoirs of the Federal Administrations, vol. ii. p. 411.
76 OFFICIAL.
TO S. DEXTER, SECRETARY OF WAR.
Quincy, 13 August, 1800.
Dear Sir, — Last night I received your favor of the 4th, and
have read the inclosures, all which I return to you. I will not
object to the appointment of Mr. Foncin as one of the three.
But I shall not appoint him first as long as Barron lives. If
you can find another American mathematician better than
Barron, it is well ; if not, we will appoint him first teacher. I
am well satisfied with the recommendation of Colonel David
Vance and willing to appoint him, but I wish you to ask the
opinion of Mr. Wolcott. In all business which involves expense,
I love to consult the Secretary of the Treasviry. My opinion
is clear in favor of one commissioner rather than three,i and
Vance will be enough. I need say nothing about Bloody
Fellow,2 Mr. McHenry,^ or Mr. Sevier, if we have but one.
Would it be worth while to write to Presidents Willard, Dwiffht,
Smith, Ewing, &c., to inquire after young ruathematicians ?
I am, Sir, with cordial esteem,
John Adams.
TO J. MARSHALL, SECRETARY OF STATE.
Quincy, 13 August, 1800.
hi answer to yours of the 2d, I have agreed to the appoint-
ment of Major David Hopkins to be marshal of Maryland,
according to the advice of Mr. Stoddert, although it was a
great disappointment and mortification to me to lose the only
opportunity I shall ever have of testifying to the world the
high opinion I have of the merits of a great magistrate by the
^ To negotiate with the Southern Indians for some land.
2 An Indian chief, whose evidence had been quoted in this case ajrainst Mr.
evier.
3 It is a singular fact that Mr. McHenry's name does not appear in Mr. Dex-
ter's letter, among those recommended. The idea of giving him an appointment,
mentioned by Mr. Wolcott as at first entertained by the President, seems to
have been still cherished. In the meantime that gentleman was stimulating Mr.
Wolcott to buckle on his armor, and complaining of everybody in any way
attached to Mr. Adams. Gibbs's Federal Administrations, vol. ii. p. 408.
OFFICIAL. 77
appointment of his son to an office for which he is fully quali-
fied and accomplished.^
I agree with you that a letter should be written to the govern-
ment of Guadaloupe, remonstrating against the treatment of
Daniel Tripe and another sailor, and holding up the idea of
retaliation. I agree, too, that complaints should be made
through ]Vlr. Humphreys to the Spanish court, of the violation
of their treaty in the case of Gregory and Pickard of Boston.
I return Mr. Sitgreaves's letter received in yours of August 2d.
TO J. MARSHALL, SECRETARY OF STATE.
Quincy, 14 August, 1800.
Dear Sir, — I received but last night your favor of the 4th.
I have read the papers inclosed. 1. The letter from Mr. Robert
Wain. 2. The letter from Gid. Hill Wells. 3. The represent-
ation of three masters of vessels, Thomas Choate, Robert
Forrest, and Knowles Adams, relative to the consulate of
Madeira. If there is a necessity of removing Mr. John Marsden
Pintard, a native American and an old consul, why should
we appoint a foreigner in his stead ? Among the number of
applications for consulates, cannot we find an American capable
and worthy of the trust? Mr. Lamar is a partner in a respect-
able house, but it is said to be an English, or rather a Scotch
house. Why should we take the bread out of the mouths of
our own children and give it to strangers ? We do so much
of this in the army, navy, and especially in the consulships
abroad, that it frequently gives me great anxiety. If, however,
you know of no American fit for it, who would be glad of it, I
shall consent to your giving the commission to Mr. Lamar, for
it seems to me, from these last representations, there is a neces-
sity of removing Mr. Pintard.
*
1 Judge Samuel Chase. It is curious to notice the bitterness of the feeling
indulged in by Mr. McIIenry against him and his friends on account of their
preference of Mr. Adams to Mr. Pinckney. Gibbs's Federal Administrations,
vol. ii. pp.408, 419.
The omission to make this appointment was supplied in another form twenty-
seven vears afterwards by his son John Quincy Adams, whilst President.
78 OFFICIAL.
TO J. MARSHALL, SECRETARY OF STATE.
Quincy, 26 August, 1800.
Dear Sir, — I received last night your letter of the 16th. I
am well satisfied with all its contents. The only thing which
requires any observation from me, is the proposed instruction to
Mr. King. As far as I am able to form a conjecture, five mil-
lions of dollars are more than sufficient, provided the British
creditors are left at liberty to prosecute in our courts, and recover
all the debts which are now recoverable. I agree, however,
with the heads of department, that it is better to engage to pay
by instalments, or otherwise, as may be agreed, the whole sum,
than be puzzled and teased wdth a new board and two or three
years of incessant wrangles. I should be for instructing Mr.
King to obtain the lowest sum possible, but to go as far
as five millions rather than fail. J wish Mr. King may be
furnished with as many reasons as can be thought of for redu-
cing the sum. I pray you to prepare a letter to Mr. King as
soon as possible ; and as we are all so well agreed in all the
principles, I do not think it necessary to transmit it to me.
Lay it before the heads of department, and if they approve of
it, I certainly shall not disapprove it, and you may send it, if
opportunity occurs, without further advice from me. Whether
it will be advisable to stipulate for a transfer to the United
States of such claims as the British government shall think fit
to discharge in consequence of this arrangement, I wish you to
consider. I believe it will occasion more trouble, and expense
too, than profit.
TO O. WOLCOTT, SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.
Quincy, 27 August, 1800.
Dear Sir, — Inclosed is a letter from Mr. John*C. Jones, of
Boston, recommending Captain Joseph Coffin Boyd, to fill the
place of Colonel Lunt. Also a letter from Richard Hunnewell,
requesting the office for himself. Thus you see we have an
ample choice of candidates. Fosdick, Titcomb, Mayo, Boyd,
and Hunnewell, all well qualified, and recommended by very
respectable men. The last, however, appears to me to have
OFFICIAL. 79
the best pretensions, though supported by no recommendations.
These he might easily obtain, but I think it unnecessary. This
gentleman resigned the office of a sheriff of a county, worth fif-
teen hundred dollars a year, for the sake of an appointment in
the late army worth three hundred dollars less. He was lieute-
nant-colonel commandant of the fifteenth regiment, in the late
brigade at Oxford. The public seems to be under some obliga-
tion to these gentlemen, who were so suddenly turned adrift.
Hunnewell, though very young, was an officer in the army last
war, and from his manners, appearance, education, and accom-
plishments, as well as from the circumstances before mentioned,
I think we cannot do better than to appoint him. If you are of
the same opinion, you may send him a commission ; but if you
are aware of any objection or of any reason for preferring
any other candidate, I pray you to let me know it, before any
appointment is made.
"With great esteem.
TO BARNABAS BIDWELL.
Quincy, 27 August, 1800.
Sir, — I have received your favor of the 16th, and thank you
for the information it contains.^ A very little reflection, I think,
must convince a gentleman of your information, that it would
be altogether improper for me to enter into any conversation
or correspondence relative to the changes in administration.
If a President of the United States has not authority enough
to change his own secretaries, he is no longer fit for his office.
If he must enter into a controversy in pamphlets and news-
papers, in vindication of his measures, he would have employ-
ment enough for his whole life, and must neglect the duties and
business of his station. Let those who have renounced, all of a
sudden, that system of neutrality for which they contended for
ten years, justify themselves, if they can.
I am, Su-, very respectfully,
John Adams.
' Mr. Bidwell had written a letter, requesting an explanation of the grounds
of dismission of Mr. Pickering, "not for his own satisfaction," he said, "but for
the sake of counteracting injurious impressions."
80 OFFICIAL.
TO J. MARSHALL, SECRETARY OF STATE.
Quincy, 30 August, 1800.
Dear Sir, — I received last night your favor of the 23d. My
ideas are perfectly conformable to yours in your instructions to
Mr. King, as you state them to me. The explanatory articles,
if attainable, are preferable to any other mode. The next most
eligible is the substitution of a sum in gross, that sum to be as
small as can be agreed to, or will be agreed to, by the British
government ; but to agree to five millions of dollars, rather than
fail of explanations and substitution both, and be compelled to
agree to a new board, and all their delays and altercations.
The proposed letters to the governors of Georgia, Tennessee,
and Mississippi, will, I presume, be unnecessary.^ Mr. King's
letter of the 5th of July is a melancholy picture of Britain.
Alas! how different from that held up to view in this country,
twelve months ago, to frighten me from sending to France !
However, Mr. King is somewhat of a croaker at times. He is
apt to be depressed by what he thinks a train of unfortunate
events. There is enough, however, of likeness in his drawing
to give great spirits and a high tone to the French. It will be
our destiny, for what I know, republicans as we are, to fight the
French republic alone. I cannot account for the long delay of
our envoys. We cannot depart from our honor, nor violate our
faith, to please the heroic consul.^
TO J. MARSHALL, SECRETARY OF STATE.
Quincy, 4 September, 1800.
Dear Sir, — I have received your favor of August 25th. I
am much of your opinion, that we ought not to be surprised,
if we see our envoys in the course of a few weeks or days,
without a treaty. Nor should I be surprised, if they should be
loaded with professions and protestations of love, to serve as a
substitute for a treaty. The state of things will be so critical,
1 To request their aid in keeping the peace among the Indians on the Spanish
border.
^ Bonaparte.
OFFICIAL. 81
that the government ought to be prepared to take a decided
part. Questions of consequence will arise, and, among others,
whether the President ought not at the opening of the session
to recommend to Congress an immediate and general declara-
tion of war against the French republic. Congress has already,
in my judgment, as well as in the opinion of the judges at
Philadelphia, declared war within the meaning of the Constitu-
tion against that republic, under certain restrictions and limita-
tions. If war in any degree is to be continued, it is a serious
question whether it will not be better to take off all the restric-
tions and limitations. We have had wonderful proofs that the
public mind cannot be held in a state of suspense. The public
opinion, it seems, must be always a decided one, whether in the
right or not. We shall be tortured with a perpetual conflict of
parties, and new and strange ones will continually rise up, until
we have either peace or war. The question proposed by you
is of great magnitude. I pretend not to have determined either,
in my own mind ; but I wish the heads of department to turn
their thoughts to the subject, and view it in all its lights.^
The despatches from the Isle of France are unexpected.
Four or five parties have in succession had the predominance
in that island, and the old governor has gone along with each
in its turn. We ought to be cautious on that business. I
should prefer Mr. Lamar, so strongly recommended, to any
Spaniard or Madeira man. If you can find a sound native
American, well qualified, appoint him ; if not, I will agree to
Mr. Lamar. I will return the papers by a future opportunity.
1 Mr. Marshall, in his letter, says : —
"The state of the negotiation on the 17th of May, considered in connection
with the subsequent military operations of the armies, and with the impression
which will probably be made by the New York election, gives the appearance of
truth to the intelligence in the papers from St. Sebastian's. We ought not to be
surprised, if we see our envoys in the course of the next month, without a treaty.
This pi'oduces a critical state of things, which ought to be contemplated in time.
The question, whether hostilities against France, with the exception of their
West India privateers, ought to be continued, if on their part a change of con-
duct shall be manifest, is of serious and interesting magnitude, and is to be viewed
in a variety of aspects."
Mr. Wolcott's tone on this subject may be gathered from his very remarkable
letter of the 3d September to Alexander Hamilton. Gibbs's Memoirs of the
Federal Administrations, vol. ii. p. 417.
8S OFFICIAL.
TO J. MARSHALL, SECRETARY OF STATE
Quincy, 5 September, 1800.
Dear Sir, — I hope, as you do, that the resistance to the
execution of the judgment of the courts of the United States
in Kentucky, as represented by Judge Harry Innes, exists no
longer. I return you all the papers.
Mountflorence's information was, that our envoys " were ready
to depart for Havre de Grace, where they intended to embark
for the Hague." This was, probably, given out by the French
to conceal something from the public. What that something
was, you may conjecture as well as I. They would not be
anxious to conceal settlement to mutual satisfaction.^
I agree with you that very serious, though friendly remon-
strances ought to be made to Spain. I can even go as far as
you, and demand compensation for every American vessel con-
demned by the French consular courts in the dominions of
Spain. I return all the papers relative to this subject.
TO J. MARSHALL, SECRETARY OF STATE.
Quincy, 9 September, 1800.
Dear Sir, — Mr. Stevens's letter, inclosed in yours of the
30th, seems to require a proclamation to open the trade between
the United States and the ports of St. Domingo, which were
lately in the possession of Rigaud, and I am ready to agree to
it whenever you and the heads of department shall be satisfied.
Mr. Mitchell, of Charleston, promises great things, and he
may be able to perform them, for any thing I know. But I
have no intimation that Mr. Boudinot will resign, and I can
promise no office beforehand. It has been the constant usage,
now twelve years, for the President to answer no letters of soli-
citation or recommendation for office. I know of no coins of
gold better executed than our eagles, nor of sUver than our dol-
lars. The motto of the Hotel de Valentinois, in which I lived
at Passy, was, " se sta bene, non si muove." " If you stand
1 This was a false report. Mr. Wolcott's hopes peep even through his doubts.
See his letter to J. McHenry. Gibbs's Federal Administrations, vol. ii. p. 410.
OFFICIAL. 83
well, stand still." The epitaph, " stava ben, ma por stare meg-
lio, sto qui," "I was well, but by taking too much physic to
be better, lo hei-e I lie," is a good admonition. I will not be
answerable for the correctness of my Italian, but you see I have
an idle morning, or I should not wTite you this common-place.
I return you Mr. Humphreys's letter, and inclose that of Mr.
John H. Mitchell, and that of Mr. Stevens.
With sincere regard, &c.
John Adams.
TO JOHN TRUMBULL.
Quincy, 10 September, 1800.
Dear Sir, — I thank you for your favor of the 4th. Porcu-
pine's gazette, and Fenno's gazette, from the moment of the
mission to France, aided, countenanced, and encouraged by
soi-disant Federalists in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia,
have done more to shuffle the cards into the hands of the jacobin
leaders, than all the acts of administration, and all the policy of
opposition, from the commencement of the government. After
the house of representatives had unequivocally and unanimously
applauded that measure, as they did in their address in answer
to the speech at the opening of the last session of Congress, it
is arrogance, presumption, and inconsistency, without a parallel,
in any to say, as they continue to do, in the newspapers, that
the Federalists disapprove it. The jacobins infer from this
disapprobation designs in such Federalists, which they are not
prepared to avow. These Federalists may yet have their fill at
fighting. They may see our envoys without peace ; and if they
do, what has been lost ? Certainly nothing, unless it be the
intlvience of some of the Federalists by their own imprudent
and disorganizing opposition and clamor. Much time has been
gained. If the election of a Federal President is lost by it, they
who performed the exploit will be the greatest losers. They
must take the consequences. They will attempt to throw the
blame of it upon me, but they will not succeed. They have
recorded their own intemperance and indiscretion in characters
too legible and too public. For myself, age, infirmities, family
misfortunes, have conspired with the unreasonable conduct of
84 OFFICIAL.
jacobins and insolent Federalists, to make me too indifferent to
whatever can happen.
I am, as ever, your affectionate friend.
John Adams.
TO J. MARSHALL, SECRETARY OF STATE.
Quincy, 18 September, 1800.
I received last night, and have read this morning, the copy
of your letter to Mr. King, inclosed in your favor of the 9th.
I know not how the subject could have been better digested. ^
An idea has occurred to me, which I wish you would con-
sider. Ought not something to be said to Mr. King about the
other board ? That, I mean, in London.^ We understand it,
no doubt, all along, that those commissioners are to proceed,
and their awards are to be paid. But should not something be
expressed concerning it, in this new arrangement, whether by
explanations or a composition for a gross sum? Can it be
stipulated that the gross sum, if that should be accepted, should
be paid, in whole or in part, to American claimants before the
board in London, in satisfaction of awards in their favor?
These, perhaps, would loan the money to government, and
receive certificates on interest, as the merchants have for ships.
I only hint the thing for consideration ; am not much satisfied
with it.
TO J. MARSHALL, SECRETARY OF STATE.
Quiney, 27 September, 1800.
Dear Sir, — I received yesterday the inclosed letter, sent up
from Boston, with several others, and large packets which appear
to be only newspapers. This is a duplicate of No. 244, from
Mr. Humphreys at Madrid, dated 29th July and August 1st.
Talleyrand's reply to the French minister says : " In the present
state of the negotiation between the United States and France,
you may inform Mr. Humphreys that he shall not long have
occasion to complain of any more robberies [brigandages) com-
' This clear and statesmanlike despatch proposed the settlement of the ques-
tions under the sixth article of the British treaty by the payment of a gross sum.
2 That constituted under the seventh article of the same treaty.
OFFICIAL. 85
mitted under the name of privateering." This sentiment favors
your idea in your letter of the 17th, that " the present French
government is much inclined to correct, at least in part, the
follies of the past." ^ Inclosed is a private letter to me from
Mr. King of 28th July, which may reflect some light upon the
disposition of the French government about that time. They
might be courting or flattering the northern powers into an armed
neutrality. The envoys, when they come, will, I hope, be able
to clear away all doubts, and show us plainly both our duty and
our interest. I return you the three parchments signed as com-
missions for Clark, Vanderburg, and Griffin, to be judges in the
Indiana territory. I wish you a pleasant tour to Richmond,
but I pray you to give such orders that, if despatches should
arrive from our envoys, they may be kept as secret as the grave
till the Senate meets. On Monday, the 13th October, I shall
set off from this place. Letters should not be sent to me, to
reach this place or Boston after that day. I pray you to turn
your reflections to the subject of communications to be made
to Congress by the President, at the opening of the session, and
give me your sentiments as soon as possible in writing. The
Constitution requires that he should give both information and
counsel.
I am, Sir, with a sincere attachment,
John Adams.
1 Mr. Marshall bad written as follows : —
"It is certainly wise to contemplate the event of our envoys returning without
a treaty, but it will very much depend on the intelligence and assurances they
maj' bring, what course sound policy will direct the tjnited States to pursue. I
am greatly disposed to think that the present government is much inclined to
correct, at least in part, the follies of the past. Of these, perhaps, none were
more conspicuous, or more injurious to the French nation, than their haughty and
hostile conduct to neutrals. Considerable retrograde steps in this respect have
already been taken, and I expect the same course will be continued. Should
this expectation not be disappointed, there will be security, at least a reasonable
prospect of it, for the future, and there will exist no cause of war, but to obtain
compensation for past injuries. This, I am persuaded, will not be deemed a
sufficient motive for such a measure."
Mr. Wolcott, at this time, was very differently engaged. Gibbs's Memoirs of
the Federal Administrations, vol. ii. p. 430. Hamilton's Works, vol. vl. p. 471.
VOL. IX. 8
86 OFFICIAL.
TO S. DEXTER, SECRETARY OF WAR.
Quincy, 30 September, 1800.
Dear Sir, — The letter of Mr. King to me of August the 11th,
with Bell's Weekly Messenger of August 10th, I inclose to you,
because General Marshall, I suppose, will be absent. I pray
you to communicate it to the other gentlemen. If the negotia-
tion is terminated upon the stated points, the object is, no doubt,
our United States election ; but time will show they are directed
by superficial advisers. Instead of operating in favor of their
man, it will work against him. It is very probable they will
send a minister or ministers here, and it behoves us to consider
how we shall receive him. There can be no question in Ame-
rica, or at least with the executive authority of government,
whether we shall preserve our treaty with Britain with good
faith. It is impossible we should violate it, because impossibile
est quod jure impossibile. I send you a letter also from Mr.
Gore of August 8th, and a triplicate from Mr. King of 2Sth of
Jiily. I will thank you to return me these letters.
TO J. MARSHALL, SECRETARY OF STATE.
Quincy, 3 October, 1800.
Dear Sir, — I have received last night your letter of 24th
September. I return you Mr. Adams's letter of 28th of June.
The question, whether neutral ships shall protect enemies' pro-
perty, is indeed important. It is of so much importance, that
if the principle of free ships, free goods, were once really esta-
blished and honestly observed, it would put an end forever to
all maritime war, and render all military navies useless. How-
ever desirable this may be to humanity, how much soever
philosophy may approve it and Christianity desire it, I am
clearly convinced it will never take place. The dominant power
on the ocean will forever trample on it. The French would
despise it more than any nation in the world, if they had the
maritime superiority of power, and the Russians next to them.
We must treat the subject with great attention, and, if all other
nations will agree to it, we will. But while one holds out, we
OFFICIAL. ^ 87
shall be the dupes, if we agree to it. Sweden and Denmark,
Russia and Prussia, might form a rope of sand, but no depend-
ance can be placed on such a maritime coalition. We must,
however, treat the subject with gi-eat respect. If you have
received a certificate that the ratifications of the treaty with
Prussia are exchanged, should not a proclamation issue, as
usual, to publish it? I have read with some care, and great
pleasure, your letter to Mr. King of 20th September. I think it
very proper that such a letter should be sent, and I am so fully
satisfied with the representations and reasonings in it, that I
shall give it to General Lincoln, the collector of Boston, to be
sent by the first opportunity to I^ondon.^
TO O. WOLCOTT, SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.
Quincy, 4 October, 1800.
Dear Sir, — Inclosed is a letter from Mr. Daniel Bedinger,
with a certificate in his favor from Governor Wood. I suppose
this letter comes too late; but that, if it had arrived earlier, it
would have made no alteration in your judgment or mine.
Neither Mr. Parker nor any other person ever had authority from
me to say, that any man's political creed would be an insuper-
able bar to promotion. No such rule has ever been adopted.
Political principles and discretion will always be considered,
with all other qualifications, and well weighed, in all appoint-
ments. But no such monopolizing, and contracted, and illiberal
system, as that alleged to have been expressed by Mr. Parker,
was ever adopted by me.
Washington appointed a multitude of democrats and jaco-
bins of the deepest die. I have been more cautious in this
respect; but there is danger of proscribing, under imputations
of democracy, some of the ablest, most influential, and best
characters in the Union.
Inclosed is a letter from William Cobb, requesting to be col-
lector at Portland. I send you these letters, that they may be
filed in your office, with others relative to the same subject.
1 Mr. Marshall had said of this letter, —
"If you conceive that no such letter should be sent, it may at once be sup-
pressed. If you wish any changes in that now transmittod, I will, on receiving
your wish, immediately obey it. If the letter, as sent, is satisfactory to you, I
must ask the favor of you to let Mi". Shaw forward it to Mr. King."
88 OFFICIAL.
TO S. DEXTER, SECRETARY OF WAR.
Quincy, 9 October, 1800.
Dear Sir, — I have read the inclosed tedious proceedings,
but cannot reconcile myself to the severity of the sentences.
One of the officers certainly ought to be dismissed, and com-
pelled to do justice to the men. But the circumstances of
degradation and infamy might work upon the compassion of
his neighbors powerfully enough to make him a great man in
the militia or some State government. The other, perhaps,
ought to be dismissed only, but of this I am not decided. Let
them rest till I see you, which will not be long after, nor much
before, Mrs. Dexter will make you healthy and happy.
I am, with great regard,
John Adams.
O. WOLCOTT, secretary OF THE TREASURY, TO JOHN ADAMS.
Washington, 8 November, 1800.
Sir, — I have, after due reflection, considered it a duty which
I owe to myself and family, to retire from the office of Secretary
of the Treasury ; and accordingly I take the liberty to request
that the President would be pleased to accept my resignation,
to take effect, if agreeable to him, only at the close of the pre-
sent year.i
In thus suggesting my wishes, I am influenced by a desire
of affording to the President suitable time to designate my
successor, and also of reserving to myself an opportunity to
' Mr. Woloott seems not to have been entirely easy in his mind touching his
secret occupations during the preceding two months. His mode of compounding
with his conscience is curiously set forth in his letter to Alexander Hamilton of
the 3d of September. Gibbs's Memoirs, Sfc, vol. ii. p. 416. See also the letter
of the 3d October, given in Gibbs, with omissions which are nearly all supplied
in Hamilton's Works, vol. vi. p. 471. The idea of giving the President, whom he
was doing his best to eject from office after the 3d of March, time to select a
successor for two months, is only one degree less singular than that suggested by
his biographer, that his decision was postponed until after he had become satis-
fied that the last hope of his continuance, through the secret movement for Mr.
Pinckney, must fail. See Gibbs's Memoirs, ^'c, vol. ii. pp. 443.
In the meantime, Mr. Adams had not the remotest suspicion of what was
going on. Not altogether unfitly does Mr. Wolcott himself remark : " It ap-
pears to me that certain federalists are in danger of losing character in point of
sincerity!" Gibbs, vol. ii. p. 431.
OFFICIAL. 89
transfer the business of the department without injury to the
public service.
I have the honor to be, &c.
Oliver Wolcott.
TO OLIVER WOLCOTTj SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.
Washington, 10 November, 1800.
Dear Sir, — I have received your letter of the 8th of this
month, and am sorry to find that you judge it necessary to
retire from office. Although I shall part with your services as
Secretary of the Treasury with reluctance and regret, I am
nevertheless sensible that you are the best and the only judge
of the expediency of your resignation.
If you persist in your resolution, your own time shall be mine.
I should wish to know whether, by the close of the present year,
you mean the last of December, or the fourth of March. If the
first, it is so near at hand that no time is to be lost in consider-
ing of a successor.
I am, &c.
John Adams.
JOHN JAY TO JOHN ADAMS.
(Private.)
Albany, 10 November, 1800.
Dear Sir, — Still pressed by public business, occasioned by
the late session, I take up my pen to ^vTite you a few lines
before the mail closes. It very unexpectedly happened that the
anti-federal party succeeded in the last election at the city of
New York, and acquired a decided majority in the Assembly.
Well knowing their views and temper, it was not advisable
that the speech should contain any matter respecting national
officers or measures, which would affijrd them an opportunity
of indulging their propensity to do injustice to both in their
answer.
But the next morning after the delivery of the speech, and
before they proceeded to the appointment of the electors, ]
sent them a message (and it is not usual to return any answers
to such messages,) in which I expressed sentiments which leave
8*
90 OFFICIAL.
no room for your political enemies to draw improper inferences
from the reserve observable in the speech. The respect due to
myself, as well as to you, forbade me to remain silent on a
subject and on an occasion so highly interesting; and I flatter
myself it will be agreeable to you to perceive from these cir-
cumstances, and to be assured, that I still remain, and will
remain, dear Sir, your sincere and faithful friend,
John Jay.
Just on closing this letter, a newspaper, which I inclose, came
in. It contains a copy of the Message.
O. WOLCOTT, SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY, TO JOHN ADAMS.
Washington, 11 November, 1800.
Sir, — I have the honor to acknowledge with thanks the
President's obliging letter of yesterday. The time contemplated
by myself for retiring from office is the last day of December
next. It will, however, be necessary for me to remain here
several weeks after my resignation takes place, whenever that
event may happen, for the purpose of completing the business
which will have been by me previously commenced. Notwith-
standing my resignation will take place, agreeable to the Pre-
sident's permission, on the last day of December, any services,
which I can afterwards render, while here, will be at the dis-
posal of my successor or the government.
I have the honor, &c.
Oliver Wolcott.
to john jay.
Washington, 24 November, 1800.
Dear Sir, — I received last week your friendly private letter
of the lOtli. The assurance of the continuance of your friend-
ship was unnecessary for me, because I have never had a doubt
of it. But others invent and report as they please. They have
preserved hitherto, however, more delicacy towards the friend-
ship between you and me than any other.
The last mission to France, and the consequent dismission of
OFFICIAL. 91
the twelve regiments, although an essential branch of my system
of policy, has been to those who have been intriguing and labor-
ing for an army of fifty thousand men, an unpardonable fault.
If by thfir folly they have thrown themselves on their backs,
and jacobins should walk over their bellies, as military gentle-
men express promotions over their heads, whom should they
blame but themselves ?
Among the very few truths, in a late pamphlet,^ there is one
which I shall ever acknovvdedge with pleasure, namely, that the
principal merit of the negotiation for peace was Mr. Jay's. I
Avish you would permit our Historical Society to print the papers
you drew up on that occasion. I often say, that, when my
confidence in Mr. Jay shall cease, I must give up the cause of
confidence, and renounce it with all men.
With great truth and regard, I am now, and ever shall be,
your friend and servant,
John Adams.
to john jay.
Washington, 19 December, 1800.
Dear Sir, — Mr. Ellsworth, afflicted with the gravel and the
gout, and intending to pass the winter in the south of France,
after a few weeks in England, has resigned his office of Chief
Justice, and I have nominated you to your old station. This
is as independent of the inconstancy of the people, as it is of
the will of a President. In the future administration of our
country, the firmest security we can have against the effects
of visionary schemes or fluctuating theories, will be in a solid
judiciary ; and nothing will cheer the hopes of the best men so
much as your acceptance of this appointment. You have
now a great opportunity to render a most signal service to
your country. I therefore pray you most earnestly to consider
of it seriously, and accept it. You may very properly resign
the short remainder of your gubernatorial period, and Mr. Van
Rensselaer may discharge the duties. I had no permission from
you to take this step, but it appeared to me that Providence
had thrown in my way an opportunity, not only of marking to
the public the spot where, in my opinion, the greatest mass of
' Mr. Hamilton's attack upon him.
92 OFFICIAL.
worth remained collected in one individual, but of furnish-
ing my country with the best security its inhabitants afforded
against the increasing dissolution of morals.
With unabated friendship, and the highest esteem and respect,
I am, &c.
John Adams.
P. S. Your commission will soon follow this letter.^
TO GEORGE CHURCHMAN AND JACOB LINDLEY.
Washington, 24 January, 1801.
Friends, — I have received your letter of the 17th of the first
month, and thank you for communicating the letter to me of
our friend Warner Mifflin. I have read both with pleasure,
because I believe they proceeded from a sense of duty and a
principle of benevolence.
Although I have never sought popularity by any animated
speeches or inflammatory publications against the slavery of the
blacks, my opinion against it has always been known, and my
practice has been so conformable to my sentiments that I have
always employed freemen, both as domestics and laborers, and
never in my life did I own a slave. The abolition of slavery
must be gradual, and accomplished with much caution and cir-
cumspection. Violent means and measures would produce
greater violations of justice and humanity than the continuance
of the practice. Neither Mr. Mifflin nor yourselves, I presume,
would be willing to venture on exertions which would probably
excite insurrections among the blacks to rise against their mas-
ters, and imbue their hands in innocent blood.
There are many other evils in our country which are growing
(whereas the practice of slavery is fast diminishing), and threaten
to bring punishment on our land more immediately than the
oppression of the blacks. That sacred regard to truth in which
' " Governor Jay's determination to retii-e from public life had been formed
with too much deliberation and sincerity to be shaken by the honor now tendei-ed
to him, and the appointment was promptly and unequivocally declined." Jay's
Life of J. Jay, vol. i. p. 422.
Mr. Jay, in his answer, assigns the state of his health as the deciding reason,
which removed every doubt from his mind.
OFFICIAL. 93
you and I were educated, and which is certainly taught and
enjoined from on high, seems to be vanishing from among us.
A general relaxation of education and government, a general
debauchery as well as dissipation, produced by pestilential
philosophical principles of Epicurus, infinitely more than by
shows and theatrical entertainments ; these are, in my opinion,
more serious and threatening evils than even the slavery of the
blacks, hateful as that is. I might even add that I have been
informed that the condition of the common sort of white people
in some of the Southern States, particularly Virginia, is more
oppressed, degraded, and miserable, than that of the negroes.
These vices and these miseries deserve the serious and compas-
sionate consideration of friends, as well as the slave trade and
the degraded state of the blacks. I wish you success in your
benevolent endeavors to relieve the distresses of our fellow,
creatures, and shall always be ready to cooperate with you as
far as my means and opportunities can reasonably be expected
to extend.
I am, with great respect and esteem, your friend,
John Adams.
TO ELIAS BOUDINOT.
Washington, 26 January, 1801.
Dear Sir, — I have, this morning, received your favor of the
20th. The anxiety of the gentlemen of the law in New Jersey
to have the present President of the United States appointed
Chief Justice, after the 3d of March, is very flattering to me.^
Although neither pride, nor vanity, nor indolence, would prevent
me from accepting any situation, in which I could be useful, I
know of none for which I am fit. The office of Chief Justice
is too important for any man to hold of sixty-five years of age,
who has wholly neglected the study of the law for six and twenty
1 This sinfjular idea is sugsested by Mr. Boudinot in the followinw manner ; —
" Being just returned from New Jersey, will you excuse the liberty I take m
mentioning to you, that I found the gentlemen of the law there exceedingly
anxious relative to a report that is prevailing, that the office of Chief Justice of
the United States may possibly be filled by our present Chief Magistrate, after
the month of March next. I am authorized to say, that it would give them the
greatest pleasure, and raise their drooping confidence in the future government
of the United States."
94 OFFICIAL.
years. I have already, by the nomination of a gentleman in the
full vigor of middle age, in the full habits of business, and
whose reading in the science is fresh in his head, to this office,
put it wholly out of my power, and, indeed, it never was in my
hopes or wishes.
The remainder of my days will probably be spent in the
labors of agriculture, and the amusements of literature, in both
of which I have always taken more delight than in any public
office, of whatever rank. Far removed from all intrigues, and
out of the reach of all the great and little passions that agitate
the world, although I take no resolutions, nor make any promises,
I hope to enjoy more tranquillity than has ever before been my
lot. Mrs. A. returns her thanks for the friendly politeness of
Mrs. Boudinot and Mrs. Bradford. The other parts of your
letter will be duly weighed and considered in their season.
TO RICHARD STOCKTON.
AVashington, 27 January, 1801.
Dear Sir, — I am much obliged by your favor of the 17th.
If the judiciary bill should pass, as I hope and believe it will,
I should be very glad of your advice relative to appointments
in other States as well as your own.
The talents and literary qualifications of Mr. William Griffith,
of Burlington, have been familiar to me for some time. Your
account of his character in other respects is very satisfactory.
I doubt, however, of his being literally at the head of his pro-
fession at the bar, while Mr. Richard Stockton is there, and am
not clear that his pretensions to the circuit bench are the first.
I wish to know, in confidence, your sentiments. You may have
reasons for resigning to another your own pretensions, but
before any nomination is made, I should be very glad to know,
whether you would accept it. It is very probable to me that
your prospects in your own State and at large may be better for
yourself, and more for the benefit of the public, but as I am not
certainly informed, I shall be somewhat embarrassed. I may
have been too indifferent to the smiles of some men, and to the
OFFICIAL. 95
frowns of others,^ but neither will influence my judgment, I
hope, in determining nominations of judges, characters at all
times sacred in my estimation.
With great esteem, I remain, &c.
John Adams.
TO J. MARSHALL, SECRETARY OF STATE.
Washington, 31 January, 1801.
I request you would cause to be prepared letters for me to
sign, to the King of Prussia, recalling Mr. John Quincy Adams,
as minister plenipotentiary from his court. You may express
the thanks of the President to his Majesty for the obliging
reception and kind treatment this minister has met with at his
court, and may throw the letter into the form of leave to return
to the United States. You will look into the forms, in your
office, of former instances of recall. I wish you to make out one
letter to go by the way of Hamburg, another by Holland, a
third by France, a fourth through Mr. King in England, a fifth,
if you please, by the way of Bremen or Stettin, or any other
channel most likely to convey it sooil It is my opinion this
minister ought to be recalled from Prussia. Justice would
require that he should be sent to France or England, if he
should be continued in Europe. The mission to St. James's is
perfectly well filled by Mr. King ; that to France is no doubt
destined for some other character. Besides, it is my opinion
that it is my duty to call him home.
TO S. DEXTER, SECRETARY OF AVAR.
Washington, 31 January, 1801.
Dear Sir, — I hereby authorize and request you to execute
the office of Secretary of State so far as to affix the seal of the
United States to the inclosed commission to the present Secre-
' This is an allusion to INIr. Stockton's letter, who said, speaking of " those
•who under one name or another have perpetually opposed this government and
calumniated its administration ; " —
" Your public conduct, Sir, has fully evinced that you never dreaded the
frowns, nor courted the smiles of such men."
96 OFFICIAL.
tary of State, John Marshall, of Virginia, to be Chief Justice
of the United States, and to certify in your own name on the
commission as executing the office of the Secretary of State
pro hdc vice.
John Adams.
JOHN MARSHALL TO JOHN ADAMS.
4 February, 1801.
Sir, — I pray you to accept my grateful acknowledgments
for the honor conferred on me in appointing me Chief Justice
of the United States. This additional and flattering mark of
your good opinion has made an impression on my mind which
time will not efface.
I shall enter immediately on the duties of the office, and hope
never to give you occasion to regret having made this appoint-
ment.
With the most respectful attachment, &c.
J. Marshall.
TO JOHN MARSHALL.
Washington, 4 February, 1801.
Dear Sir, — I have this moment received your letter of this
morning, and am happy in your acceptance of the office of
Chief Justice, The circumstances of the times, however, render
it necessary that I should request and authorize you, as I do by
this letter, to continue to discharge all the duties of Secretary
of State until ulterior arrangements can be made.
With great esteem, I am, &c.
John Adams.
TO JOSEPH ward.
Washington, 4 February, 1801.
Dear Sir, — I have received and read with much pleasure
your kind and friendly letter of January 22d. As I have all my
OFFICIAL. 97
lifetime expected such events as these which have lately occur-
red, I was not surprised when they happened. They ought to
be lessons and solemn warnings to all thinking men. Clouds
black and gloomy hang over this country, threatening a fierce
tempest arising merely from party conflicts, at a time when the
internal and external prosperity of it, and the national prospects
in every other respect, are the most pleasing and promising that
we ever beheld. I pray Heaven to dissipate the storm. Depres-
sions of spirits, such as wound the nice organs of health, I have
not perceived and do not apprehend, but I have some reason to
expect that my constitution will have another trial when I come
to exchange a routine of domestic life, without inuch exercise,
for a life of long jom-neys and distant voyages, in one or other
of which I have been monthly or at least yearly engaged for
two and forty years. When such long continued and violent
exercise, such frequent agitations of the body, are succeeded by
stillness, it may shake an old frame. Rapid motion ought not
to be succeeded by sudden rest. But, at any rate, I have not
many years before me, and those few are not very enchanting
in prospect. Till death, an honest man and candid friend will
ever be dear to my heart, and Colonel Ward, as one of that
character, may ever be sure of the good-will and kind remem-
brance of
John Adams.
P. S. Ward, 1 wish you would ^vrite a dissertation upon
parties in this country.
TO ELBRIDGE GERRY.
Washington, 7 February, 1801.
Dear Sir, — I lament with you the arbitrary application of
party nicknames and unpopular appellations, and although
with you I heartily wish, yet I cannot say I hope, that the
wickedness of the wicked will come to an end. On the con-
trary, it appears to me that, unlike the rising light which shineth
more and more to the perfect day, the darkness will thicken till
it may be felt. In the multitude of applications for consulates,
it is impossible for me to say what Mr. Lee's success may be.
VOL. IX. 9 e
98 OFFICIAL.
The imputation of jacobinism, which I believe to be groundless,
will have no weight with me. It may, however, with the Senate.
I have no inclination to inquire whether I should have been
evaded, if the electors in South Carolina had been federal, or
not. I can easily credit such a conjecture. Yet I believe
the Pinckneys are honorable men, and would not have pro-
moted or connived at the design. The original plan, which
was determined in a caucus, proposed, I suppose, by Hamilton,
and promoted by Goodhue and his patrons and puppets, was
the fundamental error. Messrs. Pinckney had no just preten-
sions to such an elevation any more than Mr. Burr, except that
their characters are fairer, more independent, and respectable.
I know no more danger of a political convulsion, if a President,
pro tempore, of the Senate, or a Secretary of State, or Speaker
of the House, should be made President by Congress, than if
Mr. Jefferson or Mr. Burr is declared such. The President
would be as legal in one case as in either of the others, in my
opinion, and the people as well satisfied. This, however, must
be followed by another election, and Mr. Jefferson would be
chosen ; I should, in that case, decline the election. We shall
be tossed, at any rate, in the tempestuous sea of liberty for
years to come, and where the bark can land but in a political
convulsion, I cannot see. I wish the good ship to her desired
harbor.
"With usual esteem and regard, &c.
John Adams.
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE.
Washington, 10 February, 1801.
Dear Sir, — Inclosed is a Newburyport Herald, in which is
quoted "a letter from John Adams, dated Amsterdam, 15th
December, 1780, to Thomas Cashing, Lieutenant-Governor of
Massachusetts." This letter has been, for some years past,
reprinted and quoted in many American pamphlets and news-
papers as genuine, and imposes on many people by supposing
and imputing to me sentiments inconsistent with the whole
tenor of my life and all the feelings of my nature.^ I remember
1 This letter has been, very lately, quoted as genuine.
OFFICIAL. 99
to have read the letter in English newspapers soon after it was
published, at a time when the same English papers teemed with
forged letters, long, tedious, flat, and dull, in the name of Dr.
Franklin, the most concise, sprightly, and entertaining writer of
his time. The Doctor declared them all to be forgeries, which he
was not under a necessity of doing, because every reader of com-
mon sense and taste knew them to be such from their style and
nonsense. The letter in my name, I also declare to be a for-
gery. I never wTote a letter in the least degree resembling it
to Lieutenant-Governor Gushing, nor to any other person. This
declaration I pray you to file in your office, and you have my
consent to publish it, if you think fit.
I am. Sir, &c.
John Adams.
OLIVER WOLCOTT TO JOHN ADAMS.
JMiddletown, 28 IVIarch, 1801.
I embrace the earliest opportunity which I have been able
to improve, since your arrival at Quincy, to express my most
sincere acknowledgments for the distinguished proof, which I
have received, of your confidence, in being appointed a judge
of the second circuit of the United States.
My friends have communicated to me the circumstances
which attended the appointment ; by which I hear, with the
highest satisfaction, that I owe the honorable station in which
I have been placed, to your favorable opinion, and in no degree
to their solicitation. Believing that gratitude to benefactors is
among the most amiable, and ought to be among the most
indissoluble, of social obligations, I shall, without reserve, cherish
the emotions which are inspired by a sense of duty and honor
on this occasion.^
I am, &c.
Oliver Wolcott.
' It is stated in Mr. Gibbs's work, that this " appointment had been made
with a full knowledjie of Mr. Wolcott's pohtical views, which were, indeed, no
secret to any one." Mr. Adams certainly had no suspicion of the spirit betrayed
in the letter to Fisher Ames, of the 10th August, 1800. Mr. Wolcott shows
conscientious struggles to obtain from his friends the right publicly to declare
his opposition ; but this they denied him, and therefore he never exercised it.
Gibbs's Memoirs, Sj-c, vol. ii. pp. 400, 431, 496.
100 OFFICIAL.
TO OLIVER WOLCOTT.
Quincy, 6 April, 1801.
Sir, — I have received your favor of the 28th of March, and
I read it with much pleasure. The information you have
received from your friends, concerning the circumstances of
your nomination to be a judge of the second circuit of the
United States, is very correct.
I have never allowed myself to speak much of the gratitude
due from the public to individuals for past services, but I have
always wished that more should be said of justice. Justice is
due from the public to itself, and justice is also due to indivi-
duals. When the public discards or neglects talents and inte-
grity, united with meritorious past services, it commits iniquity
against itself, by depriving itself of the benefit of future services ;
and it does wrong to the individual, by depriving him of the
reward, which long and faithful services have merited. Twenty
years of able and faithful services on the part of Mr. Wolcott,
remunerated only by a simple subsistence, it appeared to me,
constituted a claim upon the public, which ought to be attended
to. As it was of importance that no appointment should be
made that would be refused, I took measures to ascertain from
your friends the probability of your acceptance, and then made
the nomination, happy to have so fair an opportunity to place
you beyond the reach of will and pleasure. I wish you much
pleasure, and more honor, in your law studies and pursuits, and
I doubt not you will contribute your full share to make justice
run down our streets as a stream. My family joins in friendly
regards to you and yours. With much esteem, I have the
honor to be, Sir,^ &c.
John Adams.
1 Mr. Adams was charged by his enemies, and among others by Mr. Wolcott,
with being unreasonably jealous and suspicious. To the day of his death he
never suspected that the individual to whom he addressed this letter, over-
flowing with kindness, was the person who had secretly furnished the confi-
dential information, obtained as a cabinet officer and adviser of the President,
upon which Mr. Hamilton rested his attack upon his reputation, and had
revised, corrected, amended, and approved all of that paper, whilst in manu-
script. The evidence of this has now been voluntarily placed before the pub-
lic by his own grandson, and by the son of Mr. Hamilton. See his letter to Mr.
Hamilton, 3d September, 1800, in Gibbs's Memoirs of the Federal Adminis-
OPFICIAL. 101
irations, vol. ii. pp. 41G-418, and that of 2d October, 1800, in Hamilton's
Workit, vol. vi. pp. 471-475. Micv a perusal of these letters, the conclusions
lately drawn by a perfectly impartial witness, may be deemed not entirely
unworthy of consideration. Referring to Mr. Gibbs's own statement, this
writer says, —
" Even from this ex parte case, it is clear that the secretaries, during the whole
period of their official serv^ice, were cognizant of a plot for the overthrow of their
chief ; that they not only did not disclose this, but did their best to promote it ;
and that they both directed the public counsels to its furtherance, and without
stint disclosed the confidential proceedings of the President himself to supply it
with fuel. A parallel to this, it is true, is found in the treatment of James U., by
Churchill and Sunderland, and of Napoleon by Talleyrand and Fouch6 ; but even
to these extreme and revolutionary cases no term short of ill-faith can be applied.
It is argued that the cabinet saw that the President's cause was inimical to
good government, and that, therefore, they had a right to oppose him. Cer-
tainly they had, it" they had first resigned, and then, when in opposition, respected
the sanctity of official communications." Wharton's State Trials. Preliminary
Notes, p. 13.
The reason given, why these officers did not resign, is that they were deter-
mined to remain, in order " to control the actions of the President." Gibbs's
Memoirs, §'c., vol. ii. p. 214. It is worthy of remark, in this connection, that in
all the subsequent vicissitudes of party conflict in the United States, no similar
violation of confidence in cabinet officers has ever taken place.
9*
SPEECHES AND MESSAGES
TO CONGRESS,
PROCLAMATIONS,
AND
ADDRESSES.
SPEECHES TO CONGHESS
INAUGURAL SPEECH TO BOTH HOUSES OF CONGRESS,
4 March, 1797.
When it was first perceived, in early times, that no middle
com'se for America remained between unlimited submission to
a foreign legislature and a total independence of its claims,
men of reflection were less apprehensive of danger from the
formidable power of fleets and armies they must determine to
resist, than from those contests and dissensions, which would
certainly arise, concerning the forms of government to be insti-
tuted, over the whole, and over the parts of this extensive
country. Relying, however, on the purity of their intentions,
the justice of their cause, and the integrity and intelligence of
the people, under an overruling Providence, which had so sig-
nally protected this country from the first, the representatives of
this nation, then consisting of little more than half its present
numbers, not only broke to pieces the chains which were forg-
ing, and the rod of iron that was lifted up, but frankly cut
asunder the ties which had bound them, and launched into an
ocean of uncertainty. '
The zeal and ardor of the people during the revolutionary
war, supplying the place of government, commanded a degree
of order, sufficient at least for the temporary preservation of
society. The confederation, which was early felt to be neces-
sary, was prepared from the models of the Batavian and Helvetic
confederacies, the only examples which remain, with any detail
and precision, in history, and certainly the only ones which the
people at large had ever considered. But, reflecting on the
striking difference in so many particulars between this country
106 OFFICIAL.
and those where a courier may go from the seat of government
to the frontier in a single day, it was then certainly foreseen by
some, who assisted in Congress at the formation of it, that it
could not be durable.
Negligence of its regulations, inattention to its recommenda-
tions, if not disobedience to its authority, not only in indivi-
duals but in States, soon appeared, with their melancholy
consequences ; universal languor, jealousies, rivalries of States ;
decline of navigation and commerce ; discouragement of neces-
sary manufactures ; universal fall in the value of lands and
their produce ; contempt of public and private faith ; loss of
consideration and credit with foreign nations; and, at length,
in discontents, animosities, combinations, partial conventions,
and insurrection ; threatening some great national calamity.
In this dangerous crisis the people of America were not
abandoned by their usual good sense, presence of mind, resolu-
tion, or integrity. Measures were pursued to concert a plan to
form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic
tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the gene-
ral welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty. The public
disquisitions, discussions, and deliberations, issued in the pre-
sent happy constitution of government.
Employed in the service of my country abroad, during the
whole course of these transactions, I first saw the Constitution
of the United States in a foreign country. Irritated by no
literary altercation, animated by no public debate, heated by no
party animosity, I read it with great satisfaction, as a result of
good heads, prompted by good hearts ; as an experiment better
adapted to the genius, character, situation, and relations of
this nation and country, than any which had ever been proposed
or suggested. In its general principles and great outlines, it
was conformable to such a system of government as I had ever
most esteemed, and in some States, my own native State in
particular, had contributed to establish. Claiming a right of
suffrage in common with my fellow-citizens, in the adoption or
rejection of a constitution, which was to rule me and my posterity
as well as them and theirs, I did not hesitate to express my
approbation of it on all occasions, in public and in private. It
was not then nor has been since any objection to it, in my mind,
that the Executive and Senate were not more permanent. Nor
OFFICIAL. 107
have I entertained a thought of promoting any alteration in it,
but such as the people themselves, in the course of their expe-
rience, should see and feel to be necessary or expedient, and by
their representatives in Congress and the State legislatures,
according to the Constitution itself, adopt and ordain.
Returning to the bosom of my country, after a painful separa-
tion from it for ten years, I had the honor to be elected to a
station under the new order of things, and I have repeatedly
laid myself under the most serious obligations to support the
Constitution. The operation of it has equalled the most san-
guine expectations of its friends ; and, from an habitual atten-
tion to it, satisfaction in its administration, and delight in its
effect upon the peace, order, prosperity, and happiness of the
nation, I have acquired an habitual attachment to it, and vene-
ration for it.
What other form of government, indeed, can so well deserve
our esteem and love ?
There may be little solidity in an ancient idea, that congre-
gations of men into cities and nations, are the most pleasing
objects in the sight of superior intelligences ; but this is very
certain, that, to a benevolent human mind, there can be no
spectacle presented by any nation, more pleasing, more noble,
majestic, or august, than an assembly like that which has so
often been seen in this and the other chamber of Congress ; of
a government, in which the executive authority, as well as that
of all the branches of the legislature, are exercised by citizens
selected at regular periods by their neighbors, to make and
execute laws for the general good. Can any thing essential,
any thing more than mere ornament and decoration, be added
to this by robes or diamonds ? Can authority be more amiable
or respectable, when it descends from accidents or institutions
established in remote antiquity, than when it springs fresh from
the hearts and judgments of an honest and enlightened people ?
For it is the people only that are represented ; it is their power
and majesty that is reflected, and only for their good, in every
legitimate government, under whatever form it may appear.
The existence of such a government as ours, for any length of
time, is a full proof of a general dissemination of knowledge
and virtue throughout the whole body of the people. And what
object of consideration, more pleasing than this, can be presented
108 OFFICIAL.
to the human mind ? If national pride is ever justifiable or
excusable, it is when it springs, not from power or riches,
grandeur or glory, but from conviction of national innocence,
information, and benevolence.
In the midst of these pleasing ideas, we should be unfaithful
to ourselves, if we should ever lose sight of the danger to our
liberties, if any thing partial or extraneous should infect the
purity of our free, fair, virtuous, and independent elections. If
an election is to be determined by a majority of a single vote,
and that can be procured by a party, through artifice or corrup-
tion, the government may be the choice of a party, for its own
ends, not of the nation, for the national good. If that solitary
suffrage can be obtained by foreign nations, by flattery or
menaces ; by fraud or violence ; by terror, intrigue, or venality ;
the government may not be the choice of the American people,
but of foreign nations. It may be foreign nations who govern
us, and not we, the people, who govern ourselves. And candid
men will acknowledge, that, in such cases, choice would have
little advantage to boast of over lot or chance.
Such is the amiable and interesting system of government
(and such are some of the abuses to which it may be exposed),
which the people of America have exhibited, to the admiration
and anxiety of the wise and virtuous of all nations, for eight
years ; under the administration of a citizen, who, by a long
course of great actions regulated by prudence, justice, temper-
ance, and fortitude, conducting a people, inspired with the
same virtues, and animated with the same ardent patriotism
and love of liberty, to independence and peace, to increasing
wealth and unexampled prosperity, has merited the gratitude
of his fellow-citizens, commanded the highest praises of foreign
nations, and secured immortal glory with posterity.
In that retirement which is his voluntary choice, may he long
live to enjoy the delicious recollection of his services, the grati-
tude of mankind, the happy fruits of them to himself and the
world, which are daily increasing, and that splendid prospect
of the future fortunes of his country, which is opening from
year to year! His name may be still a rampart, and the know-
ledge that he lives, a bulwark against all open or secret enemies
of his country's peace.
This example has been recommended to the imitation of his
OFFICIAL. 109
successors, by both Houses of Congress, and by the voice of the
legislatures and the people throughout the nation.
On this subject it might become me better to be silent, or to
speak with diffidence ; but, as something may be expected, the
occasion, I hope, will be admitted as an apology, if I venture
to say, that, if a preference upon principle of a free republican
government, formed upon long and serious reflection, after a
diligent and impartial inquiry after truth ; if an attachment to
the Constitution of the United States, and a conscientious
determination to support it, until it shall be altered by the \
judgments and the wishes of the people, expressed in the mode j
prescribed in it ; if a respectful attention to the constitutions of I
the individual States, and a constant caution and delicacy
towards the State governments; if an equal and impartial
regard to the rights, interests, honor, and happiness of all the
States in the Union, without preference or regard to a northern
or southern, eastern or western position, their various political
opinions on essential points, or their personal attachments;
if a love of virtuous men of all parties and denominations ; if a
love of science and letters, and a wish to patronize every rational
effort to encourage schools, colleges, universities, academies, and
every institution for propagating knowledge, virtue, and religion
among all classes of the people, not only for their benign
influence on the happiness of life in all its stages and classes
and of society in all its forms, but as the only means of pre-
serving our constitution from its natural enemies, the spirit of
sophistry, the spirit of party, the spirit of intrigue, profligacy,
and corruption, and the pestilence of foreign influence, which is
the angel of destruction to elective governments ; if a love of
equal laws, of justice and humanity, in the interior administra-
tion ; if an inclination to improve agi-iculture, commerce, and
manufactures for necessity, convenience, and defence ; if a spirit
of equity and humanity towards the aboriginal nations of Ame-
rica, and a disposition to meliorate their condition by inclining
them to be more friendly to us, and our citizens to be more friend-
ly to them ; if an inflexible determination to maintain peace and
inviolable faith with all nations, and that system of neutrality
and impartiality among the belligerent powers of Europe, which
has been adopted by the government, and so solemnly sanc-
tioned by both Houses of Congress, and applauded by the
VOL. IX. 10
110 OFFICIAL.
legislatures of the States and the public opinion, until it shall
be otherwise ordained by Congress ; if a personal esteem for the
French nation, formed in a residence of seven years chiefly
among them, and a sincere desire to preserve the friendship
which has been so much for the honor and interest of both
nations ; if, while the conscious honor and integrity of the
people of America, and the internal sentiment of their own
power and energies must be preserved, an earnest endeavor to
investigate every just cause, and remove every colorable pre-
tence of complaint ; if an intention to pursue, by amicable
negotiation, a reparation for the injuries that have been com-
mitted on the commerce of our fellow-citizens by whatever
nation, and (if success cannot be obtained) to lay the facts
before the legislature, that they may consider what further
measures the honor and interest of the government and its
constituents demand ; if a resolution to do justice, as far as
may depend upon me, at all times, and to all nations, and
maintain peace, friendship, and benevolence with all the world ;
if an unshaken confidence in the honor, spirit, and resources of
the American people, on which I have so often hazarded my
all, and never been deceived ; if elevated ideas of the high
destinies of this country, and of my own duties towards it,
founded on a knowledge of the moral principles and intellectual
improvements of the people, deeply engraven on my mind in
early life, and not obscured, but exalted by experience and age ;
and with humble reverence I feel it my duty to add, if a vene-
ration for the religion of a people, who profess and call them-
selves Christians, and a fixed resolution to consider a decent
respect for Christianity among the best recommendations for
the public service ; — can enable me in any degree to comply
with your wishes, it shall be my strenuous endeavor that this
sagacious injunction of the two Houses shall not be without
effect.
With this great example before me, with the sense and
spirit, the faith and honor, the duty and interest of the same
American people, pledged to support the Constitution of the
United States, I entertain no doubt of its continuance in all
its energy ; and my mind is prepared without hesitation, to lay
myself under the most solemn obligations to support it to the
utmost of my power.
OFFICIAL. Ill
And may that Being, who is supreme over all, the patron of
order, the fountain of justice, and the protector, in all ages of the
world, of virtuous liberty, continue his blessing upon this nation
and its government, and give it all possible success and dura-
tion, consistent with the ends of his providence I
John Adams.
SPEECH TO BOTH HOUSES OF CONGRESS,
16 May, 1797.
Gentlemen of the Senate, and
Gentlemen of the House of Representative8-,
The personal inconveniences to the members of the Senate
and of the House of Representatives, in leaving their families
and private affairs at this season of the year, are so obvious,
that I the more regret the extraordinary occasion which has
rendered the convention of Congress indispensable.
It would have afforded me the highest satisfaction to have
been able to congratulate you on a restoration of peace to the
nations of Europe, whose animosities have endangered our
tranquillity ; but we have still abundant cause of gratitude to
the Supreme Dispenser of national blessings for general health
and promising seasons ; for domestic and social happiness; for
the rapid progress and ample acquisitions of industry through
extensive territories ; for civil, political, and religious liberty.
While other States are desolated with foreign war or convulsed
with intestine divisions, the United States present the pleas-
ing prospect of a nation governed by mild and equal laws,
generally satisfied with the possession of their rights ; neither
envying the advantages nor fearing the power of other nations ;
solicitous only for the maintenance of order and justice and the
preservation of liberty, increasing daily in their attachment to a
system of government, in proportion to their experience of its
utility ; yielding a ready and general obedience to laws flowing
from the reason, and resting on the only solid foundation, the
affections of the people.
It is with extreme regret that I shall be obliged to turn your
thoughts to other circumstances, which admonish us that some
of these felicities may not be lasting ; but if the tide of our
112 OFFICIAL.
prosperity is full, and a reflux commencing, a vigilant circum-
spection becomes us, that we may meet our reverses with forti-
tude, and extricate ourselves from their consequences with all
the skill we possess, and all the efforts in our power.
In giving to Congress information of the state of the Union,
and recommending to their consideration such measures as
appear to me to be necessary or expedient, according to my
constitutional duty, the causes and the objects of the present
extraordinary session will be explained.
After the President of the United States received information
that the French government had expressed serious discontents
at some proceedings of the government of these States, said to
affect the interests of France, he thought it expedient to send to
that country a new minister, fully instructed to enter on such
amicable discussions, and to give such candid explanations, as
might happily remove the discontents and suspicions of the
French government, and vindicate the conduct of the United
States. For this purpose he selected from among his fellow-
citizens a character, whose integrity, talents, experience, and
services, had placed him in the rank of the most esteemed and
respected in the nation. The direct object of his mission was
expressed in his letter of credence to the French republic ; being
" to maintain that good understanding, which, from the com-
mencement of the alliance, had subsisted between the two
nations ; and to efface unfavorable impressions, banish suspi-
cions, and restore that cordiality which was at once the evidence
and the pledge of a friendly union;" and his instructions were
to the same effect, " faithfully to represent the disposition of the
government and the people of the United States (their disposi-
tion being one) to remove jealousies, and obviate complaints,
by showing that they were groundless ; to restore that mutual
confidence which had been so unfortunately and injuriously
impaired ; and to explain the relative interests of both countries,
and the real sentiments of his own."
A minister thus specially commissioned, it was expected,
would have proved the instrument of restoring mutual con-
fidence between the two republics. The first step of the French
government corresponded with that expectation.
A few days before his arrival at Paris, the French minister
of foreign relations informed the American minister then resi-
OFFICIAL. 113
dent at Paris, of the formalities to be observed by himself in
taking leave, and by his successor preparatory to his reception.
These formalities they observed, and, on the 9th o-f December,
presented officially to the minister of foreign relations, the one,
a copy of his letters of recall, the other, a copy of his letters of
credence. These were laid before the executive directory. Two
days afterwards, the minister of foreign relations informed the
recalled American minister, that the executive directory had
determined not to receive another minister plenipotentiary from
the United States until after the redress of grievances demanded
of the American government, and which the French republic
had a right to expect from it. The American minister imme-
diately endeavored to ascertain whether, by refusing to receive
him, it was intended that he should retire from the territories
of the French republic ; and verbal answers were given that
such was the intention of the directory. For his own justifica-
tion he desired a Avritten answer, but obtained none until
towards the last of January, when, receiving notice, in writing,
to quit the territories of the republic, he proceeded to Amster-
dam, where he proposed to wait for instructions from his
government. During his residence at Paris, cards of hospitality
were refused him, and he was threatened with being subjected
to the jurisdiction of the minister of police ; but with becoming
firmness he insisted on the protection of the law of nations, due
to him as the known minister of a foreign power. You will
derive further information from his despatches, which will be
laid before you.
As it is often necessary that nations should treat for the
mutual advantage of their affairs, and especially to accom-
modate and terminate differences, and as they can treat only
by ministers, the right of embassy is well known and established
by the law and usage of nations The refusal on the part of
France to receive our minister, is then the denial of a right;
but the refusal to receive him until we have acceded to their
demands without discussion and without investigation, is to
treat us neither as allies, nor as friends, nor as a sovereign
State.
With this conduct of the French government, it will be proper
to take into view the public audience given to the late minister
of the United States on his taking leave of the executive direct-
10* H
114 OFFICIAL.
ory. The speech of the President discloses sentiments more
alarming than the refusal of a minister, because more danger-
ous to our independence and union, and at the same time
studiously marked with indignities towards the government of
the United States. It evinces a disposition to separate the
people of the United States from the government ; to persuade
them that they have different affections, principles, and interests,
from those of their fellow-citizens, whom they themselves have
chosen to manage their common concerns; and thus to produce
divisions fatal to our peace. Such attempts ought to be repelled
with a decision which shall convince France and the world that
we are not a degraded people, humiliated under a colonial spirit
of fear and sense of inferiority, fitted to be the miserable instru-
ments of foreign influence, and regardless of national honor,
character, and interest.
I should have been happy to have thrown a veil over these
transactions, if it had been possible to conceal them ; but they
have passed on the great theatre of the world, in the face of
all Europe and America, and with such circumstances of publi-
city and solemnity that they cannot be disguised, and will not
soon be forgotten. They have inflicted a wound in the American
breast. It is my sincere desire, however, that it may be healed.
It is my desire, and in this I presume I concur with you and
with our constituents, to preserve peace and friendship with all
nations ; and believing that neither the honor nor the interest
of the United States absolutely forbids the repetition of advances
for securing these desirable objects with France, I shall institute
a fresh attempt at negotiation, and shall not fail to promote and
accelerate an accommodation on terms compatible with the
rights, duties, interests, and honor of the nation. If we have
committed errors, and these can be demonstrated, we shall be
willing to correct them. If we have done injuries, we shall be
willing, on conviction, to redress them ; and equal measures of
justice we have a right to expect from France and every other
nation.
The diplomatic intercourse between the United States and
France being at present suspended, the government has no
means of obtaining official information from that country;
nevertheless there is reason to believe that the executive direct-
ory passed a decree, on the 2d of March last, contravening, in
OFFICIAL. 115
part, the treaty of amity and commerce of one thousand seven
hundred and seventy-eight, injurious to our lawful commerce,
and endangering the lives of our citizens. A copy of this
decree will be laid before you.
While we are endeavoring to adjust all our differences with
France by amicable negotiation, the progress of the war in
Europe, the depredations on our commerce, the personal injuries
to our citizens, and the general complexion of affairs, render it
my indispensable duty to recommend to your consideration
effectual measures of defence.
The commerce of the United States has become an interest-
ing object of attention, whether we consider it in relation to the
wealth and finances, or the strength and resources of the nation.
With a sea-coast of near two thousand miles in extent, opening
a wide field for fisheries, navigation, and commerce, a great
portion of our citizens naturally apply theii- industry and enter-
prise to these objects. Any serious and permanent injury to
commerce would not fail to produce the most embarrassing
disorders. To prevent it from being undermined and destroyed,
it is essential that it receive an adequate protection.
The naval establishment must occur to every man who con-
siders the injuries committed on our commerce, the insults
offered to our citizens, and the description of the vessels by
which these abuses have been practised. As the sufferings of
our mercantile and seafaring citizens cannot be ascribed to the
omission of duties demandable, considering the neutral situation
of our country, they are to be attributed to the hope of impunity,
arising from a supposed inability on our part to afford protec-
tion. To resist the consequences of such impressions on the
minds of foreign nations, and to guard against the degradation
and servility which they must finally stamp on the American
character, is an important duty of government.
A naval power, next to the militia, is the natural defence of
the United States. The experience of the last ^var Avould be
sufficient to show, that a moderate naval force, such as would
be easily within the present abilities of the Union, would have
been sufficient to have bafffed many formidable transportations
of troops from one State to another, which were then practised.
Our sea-coasts, from their great extent, are more easily annoyed,
and more easily defended, by a naval force, than any other.
116 OFFICIAL.
With all the materials our country abounds ; in skill our naval
architects and navigators are equal to any ; and commanders
and seamen will not be wanting.
But although the establishment of a permanent system of
naval defence appears to be requisite, I am sensible it cannot
be formed so speedily and extensively as the present crisis
demands. Hitherto I have thought proper to prevent the sail-
ing of armed vessels, except on voyages to the East Indies,
where general usage and the danger from pirates appeared to
render the permission proper ; yet the restriction has originated
solely from a wish to prevent collusions with the powers at
war, contravening the act of Congress, of June, one thousand
seven hundred and ninety-four ; and not from any doubt enter-
tained by me of the policy and propriety of permitting our
vessels to employ means of defence, while engaged in a lawful
foreign commerce. It remains for Congress to prescribe such
regulations as will enable our seafaring citizens to defend them-
selves against violations of the law of nations ; and at the same
time restrain them from committing acts of hostility against the
powers at war. In addition to this voluntary provision for
defence, by individual citizens, it appears to me necessary to
equip the frigates, and provide other vessels of inferior force
to take under convoy such merchant vessels as shall remain
unarmed.
The greater part of the cruisers, whose depredations have
been most injurious, have been built, and some of them par-
tially equipped, in the United States. Although an effectual
remedy may be attended with difficulty, yet I have thought it
my duty to present the subject generally to your consideration.
If a mode can be devised by the wisdom of Congress to prevent
the resources of the United States from being converted into
the means of annoying our ti-ade, a great evil will be prevented.
With the same view I think it proper to mention that some of
our citizens, resident abroad, have fitted out privateers, and
others have voluntarily taken the command, or entered on board
of them, and committed spoliations on the commerce of the
United States. Such unnatural and iniquitous practices can
be restrained only by severe punishments.
But besides a protection of our commerce on the seas, I think
it highly necessary to protect it at home, where it is collected
OFFICIAL. 117
in our most important ports. The distance of the United States
from Europe, and the well known promptitude, ardor, and
courage of the people in defence of their country, happily
diminish the probability of invasion. Nevertheless, to guard
against sudden and predatory incursions, the situation of some
of our principal seaports demands your consideration ; and as
our country is vulnerable in other interests besides those of its
commerce, you will seriously deliberate Avhether the means of
general defence ought not to be increased by an addition to the
regular artillery and cavalry, and by arrangements for forming
a provisional army.
With the same view, and as a measure which, even in a time
of universal peace, ought not to be neglected, I recommend to
your consideration a revision of the laws for organizing, arming,
and disciplining the militia, to render that natural and safe
defence of the country efficacious.
Although it is very true that we ought not to involve our-
selves in the political system of Europe, but to keep ourselves
always distinct and separate from it, if we can, yet, to effect
this separation, early, punctual, and continual information of
the current chain of events, and of the political projects in
contemplation, is no less necessary than if we were directly
concerned in them. It is necessary, in order to the discovery of
the efforts made to draw us into the vortex, in season to make
preparations against them. However we may consider our-
selves, the maritime and commercial powers of the world will
consider the United States of America as forming a weight in
that balance of power in Europe, which never can be forgotten
or neglected. It would not only be against our interest, but it
would be doing wrong to one half of Europe at least, if we
should voluntarily throw ourselves into either scale. It is a
natural policy for a nation that studies to be neutral, to consult
with other nations engaged in the same studies and pursuits ;
at the same time that measures ought to be pursued with this
view, our treaties with Prussia and Sweden, one of which is
expired, and the other near expiring, might be renewed.
Gentlemen op the House of Representatives,
It is particularly your province to consider the state of the
public finances, and to adopt such measures, respecting them,
118 OFFICIAL.
as exigencies shall be found to require. The preservation of
public credit, the regular extinguishment of the public debt, and
a provision of funds to defray any extraordinary expenses, will
of course call for your serious attention. Although the im-
position of new burdens cannot be in itself agreeable, yet there
is no ground to doubt that the American people will expect
from you such measures, as their actual engagements, their
present security, and future interests demand.
Gentlemen of the Senate, and
Gentlemen op the House op Representatives,
The present situation, of our country imposes an obligation
on all the departments of government to adopt an explicit and
decided conduct. In my situation, an exposition of the prin-
ciples by which my administration will be governed, ought not
to be omitted.
It is impossible to conceal from ourselves or the world, what
has been before observed, that endeavors have been employed
to foster and establish a division between the government and
people of the United States. To investigate the causes which
have encouraged this attempt, is not necessary ; but to repel,
by decided and united counsels, insinuations so derogatory to
the honor, and aggressions so dangerous to the constitution,
union, and even independence of the nation, is an indispensable
duty.
It must not be permitted to be doubted, whether the people
of the United States will support the government established
by their voluntary consent, and appointed by their free choice ;
or whether, by surrendering themselves to the direction of
foreign and domestic factions, in opposition to their own go-
vernment, they will forfeit the honorable station they have
hitherto maintained.
For myself, having never been indifferent to what concerned
the interests of my country, devoted the best part of my life to
obtain and support its independence, and constantly witnessed
the patriotism, fidelity, and perseverance of my fellow-citizens,
on the most trying occasions, it is not for me to hesitate or
abandon a cause in which my heart has been so long engaged.
Convinced that the conduct of the government has been just
and impartial to foreign nations, that those internal regulations
OFFICIAL. 119
which have been established by law for the preservation of
peace, are in their nature proper, and that they have been fairly
executed, nothing will ever be done by me to impair the national
engagements, to innovate upon principles which have been so
deliberately and uprightly established, or to surrender in any
manner the rights of the government. To enable me to main-
tain this declaration, I rely, under God, with entire confidence,
on the firm and enlightened support of the national legislature,
and upon the virtue and patriotism of my fellow-citizens.^
John Adams.
reply to the answer of the senate.
Mr. Vice-Presidext,
AND Gentlemen of the Senate,
It would be an affectation in me to dissemble the pleasure I
feel on receiving this kind address.
My long experience of the wisdom, fortitude, and patriotism
of the Senate of the United States enhances in my estimation
the value of those obliging expressions of your approbation of
my conduct, which are a generous reward for the past, and an
affecting encouragement to constancy and perseverance in future.
Our sentiments appear to be so entirely in unison, that I
cannot but believe them to be the rational result of the under-
standings and the natural feelings of the hearts of Americans
in general, on contemplating the present state of the nation.
While such principles and affections prevail, they will form an
indissoluble bond of union, and a sure pledge that our country
has no essential injury to apprehend from any portentous ap-
pearances abroad. In a humble reliance on Divine Providence,
' There is abundant evidence remaining of the extreme care with which this
speech was elaborated by the President. Not content with his own draught,
he seems to have freely resorted to those furnished by Mr. Pickering and Mr.
"Wolcott, at the same time eliminating words, sentences, and paragraphs at
every step. To Mr. Pickering he is unquestionably much indebted for portions
of tin's dignified paper ; at the same time, it should be noted that he took from
it almost entire the only passage about the propriety of which there has been
any question, that alluding to the address of the French directory to Mr. Mon-
roe. See Gibbs's Federal Administrations, vol. i. p. 257.
In a paper previously submitted by Mr. Pickering, suggesting topics for the
message, is a recommendation of an alien law. No notice of it seems to have
been taken in formins; the messaae.
120 OFFICIAL.
we may rest assured that, while we reiterate with sincerity our
endeavors to accommodate all our differences with France, the
independence of our country cannot be diminished, its dignity
degraded, or its glory tarnished, by any nation or combination
of nations, whether friends or enemies.
John Adams.
REPLY TO THE ANSWER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
Mr. Speaker,
AND Gentlemen of the House of Representatives,
I receive with great satisfaction your candid approbation of
the convention of Congress, and thank you for your assurances
that the interesting subjects recommended to your consideration
shall receive the attention, which their importance demands, and
your cooperation may be expected in those measures which
may appear necessary for our security or peace.
The declarations of the representatives of this nation, of their
saiisfaction at my promotion to the first office in the govern-
ment, and of their confidence in my sincere endeavors to dis-
charge the various duties of it with advantage to our common
country, have excited my most grateful sensibility.
I pray you, gentlemen, to believe, and to communicate such
assurance to our constituents, that no event, which I can foresee
to be attainable by any exertions in the discharge of my duties,
can afford me so nmch cordial satisfaction as to conduct a nego-
tiation with the French republic, to a removal of prejudices, a
correction of errors, a dissipation of umbrages, an accommoda-
tion of all differences, and a restoration of harmony and affec-
tion, to the mutual satisfaction of both nations. And whenever
the leofitimate ors^ans of intercourse shall be restored, and the
'&
i-eal sentiments of the two governments can be candidly com-
municated to each other, although strongly impressed with the
necessity of collecting ourselves into a manly posture of defence,
I nevertheless entertain an encouraging confidence, that a mu-
tual spirit of conciliation, a disposition to compensate injuries,
and accommodate each other in all our relations and connec-
tions, will produce an agreement to a treaty, consistent with
the engagements, rights, duties, and honor of both nations.
John Adams.
OFFICIAL. 121
SPEECH TO BOTH HOUSES OF CONGRESS,
23 November, 1797.
Gentlemex of the Sexate,
and of the house of representatives,
I was for some time apprehensive that it would be necessary,
on account of the contagious sickness which afflicted the city
of Philadelphia, to convene the national legislature at some
other place. This measure it was desirable to avoid, because it
would occasion much public inconvenience, and a considerable
public expense, and add to the calamities of the inhabitants of
this city, whose sufferings must have excited the sympathy of
all their fellow-cifizens. Therefore, after taking measures to
ascertain the state and decline of the sickness, I postponed my
determination, having hopes, now happily realized, that, with-
out hazard to the lives or health of the members, Congress might
assemble at this place, where it was next by law to meet. I
submit, however, to your consideration, whether a power to
postpone the meeting of Congress, without passing the time
fixed by the Constitution upon such occasions, would not be a
useful amendment to the law of 1794.
Although I cannot yet congratulate you on the reestablish-
ment of peace in Europe, and the restoration of security to the
persons and properties of our citizens from injustice and vio-
lence at sea, we have nevertheless abundant cause of gratitude
to the source of benevolence and influence, for interior tran-
quillity and personal security, for propitious seasons, prosperous
agriculture, productive fisheries, and general improvements ; and,
above aU, for a rational spirit of civil and religious liberty, and a
calm but steady determination to support our sovereignty, as
well as out moral and religious principles, against all open, and
secret attacks.
Our envoys extraordinary to the French republic embarked,
one in July, the other early in August, to join their colleague
in Holland. I have received intelligence of the arrival of both
of them in Holland, from whence they all proceeded on their
journey to Paris, within a few days of the 19th of September.
Whatever may be the result of this mission, I trust that nothing
will have been omitted on my part to conduct the negotiation
VOL. IX. 11
122 . OFFICIAL.
to a successful conclusion, on such equitable terms as may be
compatible with the safety, honor, and interests of the United
States. Nothing, in the mean time, will contribute so much to
the preservation of peace, and the attainment of justice, as a
manifestation of that energy and unanimity, of which, on many
former occasions, the people of the United States have given
such memorable proofs, and the exertion of those resources for
national defence, which a beneficent Providence has kindly
placed within their power.
It may be confidently asserted, that nothing has occurred
since the adjournment of Congress, which renders inexpedient
those precautionary measures recommended by me to the con-
sideration of the two houses, at the opening of your late extra-
ordinary session. If that system was then prudent, it is more
so now, as increasing depredations strengthen the reasons for
its adoption.
Indeed, whatever may be the issue of the negotiation with
France, and whether the war in Evirope is or is not to continue,
I hold it most certain that perfect tranquillity and order will
not soon be obtained. The state of society has so long been
disturbed, the sense of moral and religious obligations so much
weakened, public faith and national honor have been so im-
paired, respect to treaties has been so diminished, and the law
of nations has lost so much of its force, while pride, ambition,
avarice, and violence, have been so long unrestrained, there
remains no reasonable ground on which to raise an expectation,
that a commerce, without protection or defence, will not be
plundered.
The commerce of the United States is essential, if not to
their existence, at least to their comfort, their growth, prosperity,
and happiness. The genius, character, and habits of the people
are highly commercial. Their cities have been formed and
exist upon commerce. Our agriculture, fisheries, arts, and
manufactures are connected with and depend upon it. In
short, commerce has made this country what it is; and it can-
not be destroyed or neglected without involving the people in
poverty and distress. Great numbers are directly and solely
supported by navigation. The faith of society is pledged for
the preservation of the rights of comxmercial and seafaring, no
less than of the other citizens. Under this view of our affairs,
OFFICIAL. 123
I should hold myself guilty of a neglect of duty, if I forbore to
recommend that we should make every exertion to protect our
commerce, and to place our country in a suitable posture of
defence, as the only sure means of preserving both.
I have entertained an expectation that it would have been in
my power, at the opening of this session, to have communicated
to you the agreeable information of the due execution of our
treaty with his Catholic Majesty, respecting the withdrawing
of his troops from our territory, and the demarkation of the line
of limits ; but by the latest authentic intelligence, Spanish gar-
risons were still continued within our country, and the running
of the boundary line had not been commenced. These circum-
stances are the more to be regretted, as they cannot fail to
affect the Indians in a manner injurious to the United States.
Still, however, indulging the hope that the answers which have
been given will remove the objections offered by the Spanish
officers to the immediate execution of the treaty, I have judged
it proper that we should continue in readiness to receive the
posts, and to run the line of limits. Farther information on
this subject wiU be communicated in the course of the ses-
sion.
In connection with this unpleasant state of things on our
western frontier, it is proper for me to mention the attempts of
foreign agents, to alienate the affections of the Indian nations,
and to excite them to actual hostilities against the United
States. Great activity has been exerted by these persons, who
have insinuated themselves among the Indian tribes residing
within the territory of the United States, to influence them to
transfer their affections and force to a foreign nation, to form
them into a confederacy, and prepare them for w^ar against the
United States.
Although measures have been taken to counteract these in-
fractions of our rights, to prevent Indian hostilities, and to
preserve entire their attachment to the United States, it is my
duty to observe that, to give a better effect to these measures,
and to obviate the consequences of a repetition of such prac-
tices, a law providing adequate punishment for such offences
may be necessary.
The commissioners appointed under the fifth article of the
treaty of amity, commercej^and navigation, between the United
124 OFFICIAL.
States and Great Britain, to ascertain the river which was
truly intended under the name of the river St. Croix mentioned
in the treaty of peace, met at Passamaquoddy Bay in October,
one thousand seven hundred and ninety-six, and viewed the
mouths of the rivers in question, and the adjacent shores and
islands; and being of opinion that actual surveys of both rivers
to their sources were necessary, gave to the agents of the two
nations instructions for that purpose, and adjourned to meet at
Boston in August. They met ; but the surveys requiring more
time than had been supposed, and not being then completed,
the commissioners again adjourned to meet at Providence, in
the State of Rhode Island, in June next, when we may expect
a final examination and decision.
The commissioners appointed in pursuance of the sixth article
of the treaty, met at Philadelphia in May last to examine the
claims of British subjects for debts contracted before the peace,
and still remaining due to them from citizens or inhabitants of
the United States. Various causes have hitherto prevented any
determinations; but the business is now resumed, and doubtless
will be prosecuted without interruption.
Several decisions on the claims of citizens of the United
States, for losses and damages sustained by reason of irregular
and illegal captures or condemnations of their vessels or other
property, have been made by the commissioners in London,
conformable to the seventh article of the treaty. The sums
awarded by the commissioners have been paid by the British
government. A considerable number of other claims, where
costs and damages, and not captured property, were the only
objects in question, have been decided by arbitration, and the
sums awarded to the citizens of the United States have also
been paid.
The commissioners appointed agreeably to the twenty-first
article of our treaty with Spain, met at Philadelphia in the
summer past, to examine and decide on the claims of our citi-
zens for losses they have sustained in consequence of their
vessels and cargoes having been taken by the subjects of his
Catholic Majesty, during the late war between Spain and
France. Their sittings have been interrupted, but are now
resumed.
The United States being obligated to make compensation
OFFICIAL. 125
for the losses and damages sustained by British subjects, upon
the award of the commissioners acting under the sixth article
of the treaty with Great Britain, and for the losses and dama-
ges sustained by British subjects, by reason of the capture
of their vessels and merchandise, taken within the limits and
jm'isdiction of the United States, and brought into their ports,
or taken by vessels originally armed in ports of the United
States, upon the awards of the commissioners acting under
the seventh article of the same treaty, it is necessary that provi-
sion be made for fulfiUina^ these oblisrations.
The numerous captures of American vessels by the cruisers
of the French republic, and of some by those of Spain, have
occasioned considerable expenses in making and supporting the
claims of our citizens before their tribunals. The sums required
for this purpose have, in divers instances, been disbursed by the
consuls of the United States. By means of the same captures,
gi*eat numbers of our seamen have been thrown ashore in
foreign countries, destitute of all means of subsistence ; and
the sick, in particular, have been exposed to grievous sufferings.
The consuls have in these cases also advanced moneys for their
relief. For these advances they reasonably expect reimburse-
ments from the United States.
The consular act, relative to seamen, requires revision and
amendment. The provisions for their support in foreign coun-
tries, and for their return, are found to be inadequate and
ineffectual. Another provision seems necessary to be added to
the consular act. Some foreign vessels have been discovered
sailing under the flag of the United States, and with forged
papers. It seldom happens that the consuls can detect this
deception, because they have no authority to demand an in-
spection of the registers and sea letters.
Gentlemen op the House op Representatives,
It is my duty to recommend to your serious consideration
those objects which, by the Constitution, are placed particularly
within your sphere, — the national debt and taxes.
Since the decay of the feudal system, by which the public
defence was provided for chiefly at the expense of individuals,
the system of loans has been introduced. And as no nation
can raise within the year, by taxes, sufficient sums for its
11*
126 OFFICIAL.
defence and military operations in time of war, the sums loaned,
and debts contracted, have necessarily become the subject of
what have been called funding systems. The consequences
arising from the continual accumulation of public debts in
other countries ought to admonish us to be careful to prevent
their growth in our own. The national defence must be pro-
vided for, as well as the support of government; but both
should be accomplished as much as possible by immediate
taxes, and as little as possible by loans. The estimates for the
service of the ensuing year will, by my direction, be laid before
you.
Gentlemen of the Senate,
AND Gentlemen of the House op Representatives,
We are met together at a most interesting period. The
situations of the principal powers of Europe are singular and
portentous. Connected with some by treaties, and with all by
commerce, no important event there can be indifl'erent to us.
Such circumstances call with peculiar importunity not less for
a disposition to unite in all those measures on which the honor,
safety, and prosperity of our country depend, than for all the
exertions of wisdom and firmness.
In all such measures you may rely on my zealous and hearty
concurrence.^
John Adams.
REPLY to the ANSAVER OF THE SENATE.
Gentlemen of the Senate,
I thank you for this address. When, after the most laborious
investigation and serious reflection, without partial considera-
tions or personal motives, measures have been adopted or
recommended, I can receive no higher testimony of their recti-
tude than the approbation of an assembly so independent,
patriotic, and enlightened, as the Senate of the United States.
^ This speech seems to have been drawn up ahiiost exclusively from Mr.
Pickering's draught. Much, however, and particularly a long passage touching
the right of expatriation and the naturalization of foreigners, was expunged.
OFFICIAL. 127
Nothing has afforded me more entire satisfaction than the
coincidence of your judgment with mine, in the opinion of the
essential importance of our commerce, and the absolute neces-
sity of a maritime defence. What is it that has drawn to
Europe the superfluous riches of the three other quarters of the
globe, but a marine? What is it that has drained the wealth
of Europe itself into the coffers of two or three of its principal
commercial powers, but a marine ?
The world has furnished no example of a flourishing com-
merce, without a maritime protection ; and a moderate know-
ledge of man and his history will convince any one that no
such prodigy ever can arise. A mercantile marine and a mili-
tary marine must grow up together; one cannot long exist
without the other.
John Adams.
reply to the answer of the house of representatives.
Gentlemen of the House of Representatives,
I receive this address from the House of Representatives of
the United States with peculiar pleasure.
Your approbation of the meeting of Congress in this city,
and of those other measures of the executive authority of
government communicated in my address to both Houses at
the opening of the session, afford me great satisfaction, as the
strongest desire of my heart is to give satisfacti-on to the people
and their representatives by a faithful discharge of my duty.
The confidence you express in the sincerity of my endeavors,
and in the unanimity of the people, does me much honor and
gives me great joy.
I rejoice in that harmony which appears in the sentiments of
all the branches of the government, on the importance of our
commerce, and our obligations to defend it, as well as on all the
other subjects reconmiended to your consideration ; and sin-
cerely congratulate you and our fellow-citizens at large on this
appearance, so auspicious to the honor, interest, and happiness
of the nation.
John Adams.
128 OFFICIAL.
SPEECH TO BOTH HOUSES OF CONGRESS,^
8 December, 1798.
Gentlemen of the Senate, and
Gentlemen of the House of Representatives,
While, with reverence and resignation, we contemplate the
dispensations of Divine Providence, in the alarming and de-
structive pestilence with which several of our cities and towns
have been visited, there is cause for gratitude and mutual con-
gratulations that the malady has disappeared, and that we are
again permitted to assemble in safety at the seat of govern-
ment, for the discharge of our important duties. But when we
reflect that this fatal disorder has within a few years made
repeated ravages in some of our principal seaports, and with
increased malignancy, and when we consider the magnitude of
the evils arising from the interruption of public and private
business, whereby the national interests are deeply affected, I
think it my duty to invite the legislature of the Union to exa-
mine the expediency of establishing suitable regulations in aid
of the health laws of the respective States ; for these being
formed on the idea that contagious sickness may be communi-
cated through the channels of commerce, there seems to be a
necessity that Congress, v^^ho alone can regulate trade, should
frame a system, which, while it may tend to preserve the gene-
ral health, may be compatible with the interests of commerce
and the safety of the revenue.
While we think on this calamity, and sympathize with the
immediate sufferers, we have abundant reason to present to the
Supreme Being our annual oblations of gratitude for a liberal
participation in the ordinary blessings of his providence. To
1 This speech was oriijinally published with the followino; preface ; —
"At twelve o'clock, Lieutenant-General Washington, with his Secretary, Colo-
nel Lear, Major-Generals Pinckney and Hamilton, entered the hall, and took
their places on the right of the Speaker's chair. Tlie British and Portuguese
ministers, and the British and Danish consuls, with their secretaries, had their
places assigned them on the left of the chair.
"A few minutes after twelve, the President of the United States, accompanied
by his secretary, and the heads of the several departments of the government,
appeared. The President having taken his seat, and the officers of government
theirs, near the general ofHcors. he rose, and addressed the two Houses as fol-
lows."
OFFICIAL. 129
the usual subjects of gratitude, I cannot omit to add one, of the
first importance to our well-being and safety — I mean that
spirit which has arisen in our country against the menaces and
aggressions of a foreign nation. A manly sense of national
honor, dignity, and independence, has appeared, which, if en-
couraged and invigorated by every branch of the government,
will enable us to view undismayed the enterprises of any foreign
power, and become tlie sure foundation of national prosperity
and glory.
The course of the transactions in relation to the United
States and France, which have come to my knowledge during
your recess, will be made the subject of a future communica-
tion. That communication will confirm the ultimate failure of
the measures which have been taken by the government of the
United States, towards an amicable adjustment of differences
with that power. You will at the same time perceive that the
French govt^rnment appears solicitous to impress the opinion,
that it is averse to a rupture with this country, and that it has
in a qualified manner declared itself willing to receive a minister
from the United States for the purpose of restoring a good
understanding. It is unfortunate for professions of this kind,
that they should be expressed in terms which may countenance
the inadmissible pretension of a right to prescribe the qualifica-
tions which a minister from the United States should possess;
and that while France is asserting the existence of a disposition
on her part to conciliate with sincerity the differences which
have arisen, the sincerity of a like disposition on the part of the
United States, of which so many demonstrative proofs have
been given, should even be indirectly questioned. It is also
worthy of observation that the decree of the directory, alleged
to be intended to restrain the depredations of French cruisers
on our commerce, has not given and cannot give any relief; it
enjoins them to conform to all the laws of France relative to
cruising and prizes, while these laws are themselves the sources
of the depredations of which we have so long, so justly, and so
fruitlessly complained.
The law of France, enacted in January last, which subjects
to capture and condemnation neutral vessels and their cargoes,
if any portion of the latter are of British fabric or produce,
although the entire property belong to neutrals, instead of being
1
130 OFFICIAL.
rescinded, has lately received a confirmation by the failure of a
proposition for its repeal. While this law, which is an unequi-
vocal act of war on the commerce of the nations it attacks,
continues in force, those nations can see in the French govern-
ment only a power regardless of their essential rights, of their
independence, and sovereignty ; and if they possess the means,
they can reconcile nothing with their interest and honor but a
firm resistance.
Hitherto, therefore, nothing is discoverable in the conduct of
France which ought to change or relax our measures of defence.
On the contrary, to extend and invigorate them is our true policy.
We have no reason to regret that these measures have been
thus far adopted and pursued; and in proportion as we enlarge
our view of the portentous and incalculable situation of Europe,
we shall discover new and cogent motives for the full develop-
ment of our energies and resources.
But, in demonstrating by our conduct that we do not fear
war in the necessary protection of our rights and honor, we
shall give no room to infer that we abandon the desire of peace.
An efficient preparation for war can alone ensure peace. It is
peace that we have uniformly and perseveringly cultivated; and
harmony between us and France may be restored at her option.
But to send another minister without more determinate assur-
ances that he would be received, would be an act of humiliation
to which the United States ought not to submit. It must,
therefore, be left to France, if she is indeed desirous of accom-
modation, to take the requisite steps.
The United States will steadily observe the maxims by which
they have hitherto been governed. They will respect the sacred
rights of embassy. And with a sincere disposition on the part
of France to desist from hostility, to make reparation for the
injuries heretofore inflicted on our commerce, and to do justice
in future, there will be no obstacle to the restoration of a
friendly intercourse. In making to you this declaration, I give
a pledge to France and to the world, that the executive author-
ity of this country still adheres to the humane and pacific
policy, which has invariably governed its proceedings, in con-
formity with the wishes of the other branches of the government,
and of the people of the United States. But considering the
late manifestations of her policy towards foreign nations, I deem
OFFICIAL. 131
it a duty deliberately and solemnly to declare my opinion, that
whether we negotiate with her or not, vigorous preparations
for war will be alike' indispensable. These alone will give to us
an equal treaty, and insure its observance.^
Among the measures of preparation which appear expedient,
I take the liberty to recall your attention to the naval establish-
ment. The beneficial effects of the small naval armament
provided under the acts of the last session, are known and
acknowledged. Perhaps no country ever experienced more
sudden and remarkable advantages from any measure of policy
than we have derived from the arming for our maritime protec-
tion and defence. We ought, without loss of time, to lay the
foundation for an increase of our navy, to a size sufficient to
guard our coast and protect our trade. Such a naval force as
it is doubtless in the power of the United States to create and
maintain, would also afford to them the best means of general
defence, by facilitating the safe transportation of troops and
stores to every part of our extensive coast. To accomplish this
important object, a prudent foresight requires that systematical
measures be adopted for procuring at all times the requisite
1 The portion of this speech, which relates to foreign affairs, was adopted
from a drauglit presented by Mr. Wolcott, but probably drawn up in consulta-
tion with Mr. Hamilton and others outside of the cabinet. It was so distasteful
to Mr. Adams that he persisted in making a modification of the last two para-
graphs, so as not to cut off all further chance of initiating a negotiation. The
extent of the modification may be readily ascertained by comparison with ]\Ir.
Wolcott's draught, which is printed, though not cpute according to the original,
in Mr. GIbbs's work, vol. ii. pp. 168-171. But it fell far short of Mr. Adams's
own draught, which now remains to show his wishes at this period. Neither
can it be said that the Secretary of State, at least, was not apprised of it, for the
sheet on which it is written, has the following indorsement in his handwriting.
" b. Negotiating with France." The bearing of this fact is explained elsewhere.
" In a message to both houses of Congress, on the twenty-first day of June
last, I expressed my opinion of the impropriety of sending another minister
to France, without assurances that he woukl be received, protected, and privi-
leged according to the law of nations, as the representative of a sovereign State.
This opinion was well founded, and my resolution is unchanged. It is not my
intention, however, to preclude the possibility of negotiation, or to throw any
impediments in the way of an amicable settlement of all controversies with
France. I think it proper, therefore, to declare that I shall be at all times
ready to nominate, and, if I should be so happy as to obtain the advice and con-
sent of the Senate, to appoint another envoy extraordinary and minister pleni-
potentiary, with full powers and instructions to confer, treat, and conclude with
a minister of ecpial grade, commissioned by the executive directory, on all points
in dispute between the two powers. And I judge it proper further to declare,
that I shall be at all times ready to receive a suitable character, commissioned
and accredited by the government of France."
132 OFFICIAL.
timber and other supplies. In what manner this shall be done
I leave to your consideration.
I will now advert, gentlemen, to some matters of less moment,
but proper to be communicated to the national legislature.
After the Spanish garrison had evacuated the posts they
occupied at the Natchez and Walnut Hills, the commissioner
of the United States commenced his observations to ascertain
the point near the Mississippi, which terminated the northern-
most part of the thirty-first degree of north latitude. From
thence he proceeded to run the boundary line between the
United States and Spain. He was afterwards joined by the
Spanish commissioner, when the work of the former was con-
firmed, and they proceeded together to the demarkation of the
line. Recent information renders it probable that the southern
Indians, either instigated to oppose the demarkation, or jealous
of the consequences of suffering white people to run a line over
lands to which the Indian title had not been extinguished, have
ere this time stopped the progress of the commissioners. And
considering the mischiefs which may result from continuing the
demarkation, in opposition to the will of the Indian tribes, the
great expense attending it, and that the boundaries, which
the commissioners have actually established, probably extend
at least as far as the Indian title has been extinguished, it will
perhaps become expedient and necessary to suspend further
proceedings by recalling our commissioner.
The commissioners appointed in pursuance of the fifth article
of the treaty of amity, commerce, and navigation, between the
United States and his Britannic Majesty, to determine what river
was truly intended under the name of the river St. Croix men-
tioned in the treaty of peace, and forming a part of the boundary
therein described, have finally decided that question. On the 25th
of October they made their declaration that a river called Schoo-
diac, which falls into Passamaquoddy Bay, at its north-western
quarter, was the true St. Croix intended in the treaty of peace,
as far as its great fork, where one of its streams comes from the
westward and the other from the northvv^ard, and that the latter
stream is the continuation of the St. Croix to its source. This
decision, it is understood, will preclude all contention among
individual claimants, as it seems that the Schoodiao and its
northern branch, bound the grants of lands which have been
OFFICIAL. 133
made by the respective adjoining governments. A subordinate
question, however, it has been suggested, still remains to be
determined. Between the mouth of the St. Croix, as now
settled, and what is usually called the Bay of Fundy, lie a
number of valuable islands. The commissioners have not con-
tinued the boundary line through any channel of these islands,
and unless the Bay of Passamaquoddy be a part of the Bay of
Fundy, this further adjustment of boundary will be necessary.
But it is apprehended that this will not be a matter of any
difficulty.
Such progress has been made in the examination and decision
of cases of captures and condemnations of American vessels,
which were the subject of the seventh article of tiie treaty of
amity, commerce, and navigation, between the United States
and Great Britain, that it is supposed the commissioners will
be able to bring their business to a conclusion in August of the
ensuing year.
The commissioners, acting under the twenty-first article of
the treaty between the United States and Spain, have adjusted
most of the claims of our citizens for losses sustained in conse-
sequence of their vessels and cargoes having been taken by the
subjects of his Catholic Majesty, during the late war between
France and Spain.
Various circumstances have concurred to delay the execution
of the law for augmenting the military establishment. Among
these the desire of obtaining the fullest information to direct the
best selection of officers. As this object will now be speedily
accomplished, it is expected that the raising and organizing of
the troops will proceed without obstacle and with effect.
Gentlemex of the House of Representatives,
I have directed an estimate of the appropriations which will
be necessary for the service of the ensuing year to be laid before
you, accompanied with a view of the public receipts and ex-
penditures to a recent period. It will afford you satisfaction
to infer the great extent and solidity of the public resources,
from the prosperous state of the finances, notwithstanding the
unexampled embarrassments which have attended commerce.
When you reflect on the conspicuous examples of patriotism
and liberality which have been exhibited by our mercantile
VOL. IX. 12
134 OFFICIAL.
fellow-citizens, and how great a proportion of the public re-
sources depends on their enterprise, you will naturally consider,
whether their convenience cannot be promoted and reconciled
with the security of the revenue by a revision of the system by
which the collection is at present regulated.
During your recess, measures have been steadily pursued for
ejffecting the valuations and retiuns directed by the act of the
last session, preliminary to the assessment and collection of a
direct tax. No other delays or obstacles have been experienced,
except such as were expected to arise from the great extent of
our country and the magnitude and novelty of the operation ;
and enough has been accomplished to assure a fulfilment of the
views of the legislature.
Gentlemen of the Senate, and
Gentlemen of the House of Eepresentatives,
I cannot close this address without once more adverting to
our political situation, and inculcating the essential importance
of uniting in the maintenance of our dearest interests. And I
trust that by the temper and wisdom of your proceedings, and
by a harmony of measures, Ave shall secure to our country that
weight and respect to which it is so justly entitled.^
John Adams.
REPLY TO THE ANSWER OF THE SENATE.
Gentlemen of the Senate of the United States,
I thank you for this address, so conformable to the spirit of
our Constitution, and the established character of the Senate
of the United States, for wisdom, honor, and virtue.
I have seen no real evidence of any change of system or dis-
position in the French republic towards the United States.
Although the officious interference of individuals, without pub-
lic character or authority, is not entitled to any credit, yet it
deserves to be considered, whether that temerity and imperti-
* A large part of this speech was taken from the draught of Mr. Wolcott and _
Mr. Pickering.
OFFICIAL. 135
nence of individuals affecting to interfere in public affairs
between France and the United States, whether by their secret
correspondence or otherwise, and intended to impose upon the
people and separate them from their government, ought not to
be inquired into and corrected.
I thank you, gentlemen, for your assurances that you will
bestow that consideration on the several objects pointed out in
my communication, which they respectively merit.
If I have participated in that understanding, sincerity, and
constancy, which have been displayed by my fellow-citizens
and countrymen, in the most trying times, and critical situa-
tions, and fulfilled my duties to them, I am happy. The testi-
mony of the Senate of the United States, in my favor, is an
high and honorable reward, which receives, as it merits, my
grateful acknowledgments. My zealous cooperation in mea-
sures necessary to secure us justice and consideration may be
always depended on.
John Adams.
REPLY to the answer OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
Mr. Speaker, and
Gentlemen of the House of Representatives,
My sincere acknowledgments are due to the House of Repre-
sentatives of the United States for this excellent address, so
consonant to the character of representatives of a great and
free people. The judgment and feelings of a nation, I believe,
were never more truly expressed by their representatives, than
those of our constituents by your decided declaration, that,
with our means of defence, our interest and honor command us
to repel a predatory warfare against the unquestionable rights
of neutral commerce ; that it becomes the United States to be
as determined in resistance as they have been patient in suffer-
ing and condescending in negotiation ; that while those who
direct the affairs of France persist in the enforcement of decrees
so hostile to our essential rights, their conduct forbids us to
confide in any of their professions of amity ; that an adequate
naval force must be considered as an important object of
136 OFFICIAL.
national policy; and that whether negotiations with France are
resumed or not, vigorous preparations for war will be alike
indispensable.
The generous disdain you so coolly and deliberately express
of a reliance on foreign protection, wanting no foreign guaranty
of our liberties, resolving to maintain our national independence
against every attempt to despoil us of this inestimable treasure,
will meet the full approbation of every sound understanding,
and exulting applauses from the heart of every faithful Ame-
rican.
] thank you, gentlemen, for your candid approbation of my
sentiments on the subject of negotiation, and for the declara-
tion of your opinion, that the policy of extending and invigorat-
ing our measures of defence, and the adoption, with prudent
foresight, of such systematical measures as may be expedient for
calling forth the energies of our country wherever the national
exigencies may require, whether on the ocean, or on our own
territory, will demand your sedulous attention.
At the same time I take the liberty to assure you, it shall be
my vigilant endeavor that no illusory professions shall seduce
me into any abandonment of the rights which belong to the
United States as a free and independent nation.
John Adams.
SPEECH TO BOTH HOUSES OF CONGRESS,
3 December, 1799.
Gentlemen op the Senate, and
Gentlemen of the House of Representatives,
It is with peculiar satisfaction that I meet the sixth Congress
of the United States of America. Coming from all parts of the
Union, at this critical and interesting period, the members
must be fully possessed of the sentiments and wishes of our
constituents.
The flattering prospects of abundance, from the labors of the
people by land and by sea; the prosperity of our extended
OFFICIAL. 137
commerce, notwithstanding interriaptions occasioned by the
belligerent state of a great part of the world; the return of
health, industry, and trade, to those cities which have lately
been afflicted with disease; and the various and inestimable
advantages, civil and religious, which, secured under our happy
frame of government, are continued to us unimpaired, demand
of the whole American people sincere thanks to a benevolent
Deity for the merciful dispensations of his providence.
But, while these numerous blessings are recollected, it is a
painful duty to advert to the ungrateful return which has been
made for them by some of the people in certain counties of
Pennsylvania, ^vhere, seduced by the arts and misrepresentations
of designing men, they have openly resisted the law directing
the valuation of houses and lands. Such defiance was given to
the civil authority as rendered hopeless all further attempts by-
judicial process to enforce the execution of the law; and it
became necessary to direct a military force to be employed,
consisting of some companies of regular troops, volunteers, and
militia, by whose zeal and activity, in cooperation with the
judicial power, order and submission were restored, and many
of the offenders arrested. Of these, some have been convicted
of misdemeanors, and others, charged with various crimes,
remain to be tried.
To give due effect to the civil administration of government,
and to insure a just execution of the laws, a revision and
amendment of the judiciary system is indispensably necessary.
In this extensive country it cannot but happen that numerous
questions respecting the interpretation of the laws, and the
rights and duties of officers and citizens, must arise. On the
one hand, the laws should be executed ; on the other, indivi-
duals should be guarded fronr oppression. Neither of these
objects is sufficiently assured under the present organization of
the judicial department. I therefore earnestly recommend the
subject to your serious consideration.
Persevering in the pacific and humane policy, which had
been invariably professed and sincei'ely pursued by the executive
authority of the United States, when indications were made,
on the part of the French republic, of a disposition to accom-
modate the existing differences between the two countries, I
felt it to be my duty to prepare for meeting their advances by
12*
138 OFFICIAL.
a nomination of ministers upon certain conditions, which the
honor of our country dictated, and which its moderation had
given it a right to prescribe. The assurances which were
required of the French government, previous to the departure of
our envoys, have been given through their minister of foreign
relations ; and I have directed them to proceed on their mission
to Paris. They have full power to conclude a treaty, subject
to the constitutional advice and consent of the Senate. The
characters of these gentlemen are sure pledges to their country
that nothing incompatible with its honor or interest, nothing
inconsistent with our obligations of good faith or friendship to
any other nation, will be stipulated.
It appearing probable, from the information I received, that
our commercial intercourse with some ports in the island of
St. Domingo might safely be renewed, I took such steps as
seemed to me expedient to ascertain that point. The result
being satisfactory, I then, in conformity with the act of Con-
gress on the subject, directed the restraints and prohibitions of
that intercourse to be discontinued, on terms which were made
known by proclamation. Since the renewal of this intercourse,
our citizens trading to those ports, with their property, have
been duly respected, and privateering from those ports has
ceased.
In examining the claims of British subjects by the commis-
sioners at Philadelphia, acting under the sixth article of the
treaty of amity, commerce, and navigation Avith Great Britain,
a difference of opinion, on points deemed essential in the inter-
pretation of that article, has arisen between the commissioners
appointed by the United States, and the other members of that
board; from which the former have thought it their duty to
withdraw. It is sincerely to be regretted, that the execution of
an article produced by a mutual spirit of amity and justice, should
have been thus unavoidably interrupted. It is, however, con-
fidently expected that the same spirit of amity and the same
sense of justice, in which it originated, will lead to satisfactory
explanations. In consequence of the obstacles to the progi-ess
of the commission in Philadelphia, his Britannic Majesty has
directed the commissioners appointed by him under the seventh
article of the treaty, relating to British captures of American
vessels, to withdraw from the board sitting in London; but
OFFICIAL. 139
with the express declaration of his determination to fulfil with
punctuality and good faith the engagements which his majesty
has contracted by his treaty with the United States ; and that
they will be instructed to resume their functions, whenever the
obstacles, which impede the progress of the commission at Phi-
ladelphia, shall be removed. It being in like manner my sincere
determination, so far as the same depends on me, that, with equal
punctuality and good faith, the engagements contracted by the
United States, in their treaties with his Britannic majesty, shall
be fulfilled, I shall immediately instruct our minister at Lon-
don to endeavor to obtain the explanations necessary to a just
performance of those engagements on the part of the United
States. With such dispositions on both sides, I cannot enter-
tain a doubt that all difficulties will soon be removed, and that
the two boards will then proceed, and bring the business com-
mitted to them, respectively, to a satisfactory conclusion.
The act of Congress, relative to the seat of the government of
the United States, requiring that on the first Monday of Decem-
ber next, it should be transferred from Philadelphia to the district
chosen for its permanent seat, it is proper for me to inform you,
that the commissioners appointed to provide suitable buildings
for the accommodation of Congress, and of the President, and
of the public offices of the government, have made a report of
the state of the buildings designed for those purposes in the
city of Washington ; from which they conclude that the removal
of the seat of government to that place, at the time required,
will be practicable, and the accommodation satisfactory. Their
report will be laid before you.
Gentlemen of the House of Representatives,
I shall direct the estimates of the appropriations necessary
for the service of the ensuing year, together with an account of
the revenue and expenditure, to be laid before you. During a
period, in which a great portion of the civilized world has been
involved in a war unusually calamitous and destructive, it was
not to be expected that the United States could be exempted
from extraordinary burdens. Although the period is not arrived
when the measures adopted to secure our country against
foreign attacks can be renounced, yet it is alike necessary for
the honor of the government and the satisfaction of the com-
140 OFFICIAL.
munity, that an exact economy should be maintained. I invite
you, gentlemen, to investigate the different branches of the
public expenditure. The examination will lead to beneficial
retrenchments, or produce a conviction of the wisdom of the
measures to which the expenditure relates.
Gentlemen of the Senate, and
Gentlemen op^ the House of Representatives,
At a period like the present, when momentous changes are
occurring, and every hour is preparing new and great events in
the political world, when a spirit of war is prevalent in almost
every nation, with whose affairs the interests of the United States
have any connection, unsafe and precarious would be our situa-
tion, were we to neglect the means of maintaining our just
rights. The result of the mission to France is uncertain; but
however it may terminate, a steady perseverance in a system
of national defence, commensurate with our resources and the
situation of our country, is an obvious dictate of wisdom. For,
remotely as we are placed from the belligerent nations, and
desirous as we are, by doing justice to all, to avoid offence to
any, nothing short of the power of repelling aggressions will
secure to our country a rational prospect of escaping the cala-
mities of war or national degradation. As to myself, it is my
anxious desire so to execute the trust reposed in me, as to ren-
der the people of the United States prosperous and happy. I
rely, with entire confidence, on your cooperation in objects
equally your care ; and that our mutual labors will serve to
increase and confirm union among our fellow-citizens, and an
unshaken attachment to our government.
John Adams.
reply to the answer of the senate.
Gentlemen of the Senate,
I thank you for this address. I wish you all possible success
and satisfaction in your deliberations on the means which have
a tendency to promote and extend our national interests and
happiness; and I assure you that in all your measures directed
OFFICIAL. 141
to those great objects, you may at all times rely with the highest
confidence on my cordial cooperation.
The praise of the Senate, so judiciously conferred on the
promptitude and zeal of the troops called to suppress the insur-
rection, as it falls from so high authority, must make a deep
impression, both as a terror to the disobedient, and an encourage-
ment of such as do well.
John Adams.
reply to the answer of the house of representatives.
Gentlemex of the House of Repkesentatives,
This very respectful address from the representatives of the
people of the United States, at their first assembly after a fresh
election, under the strong impression of the public opinion and
national sense at this interestinar and sinsjular crisis of our
public affairs, has excited my sensibility, and receives my sin-
cere and grateful acknowledgments.^
As long as we can maintain with harmony and affection the
honor of our country, consistently with its peace, externally and
internally, while that is attainable, or in war, when that becomes
necessary, assert its real independence and sovereignty, and
support the constitutional energies and dignity of its govern-
ment, we may be perfectly sure, under the smiles of Divine
Providence, that we shall effectually promote and extend our
national interest and happiness.
The applause of the Senate and House of Representatives
so justly bestowed upon the volunteers and militia for their
zealous and active cooperation with the judicial power, which
has restored order and submission to the laws, as it comes with
peculiar weight and propriety from the legislature, cannot fail
to have an extensive and permanent effect for the support of
1 This address was drawn by John Marshall, and undoubtedly expressed his
own sentiments, and those of tlie majority, including nearly all the southern
members, of the federal party. The vexation which it caused to those who
were dissatisfied with the policy, but who could not venture to declare them-
selves against it, is curiously displayed in Mr. Wolcott's letter to Fisher Ames,
Gibbs's Federal Administrations, vol. ii. p. 314. The answer of the Senate
shows the prevalence of a different influence.
142 OFFICIAL.
government upon all those ingenuous minds who receive delight
from the approving and animating voice of their country.
John Adams.
REPLY TO THE ADDRESS OF THE SENATE,
on the peath of george washington.
23 December, 1799.
Gentlemen of the Senate,
I receive, with the most respectful and affectionate senti-
ments, in this impressive address, the obliging expressions of
your regard for the loss our country has sustained in the death
of her most esteemed, beloved, and admired citizen.
In the multitude of my thoughts and recollections on this
melancholy event, you will permit me only to say, that I have
seen him in the days of adversity, in some of the scenes of his
deepest distress and most trying perplexities; I have also
attended him in his highest elevation, and most prosperous
felicity, with uniform admiration of his wisdom, moderation,
and constancy.
Amonof all our orisfinal associates in that memorable league
of the continent in 1774, which first expressed the sovereign
will of a free nation in America, he was the only one remaining
in the general government.
Although, with a constitution more enfeebled than his at an
age when he thought it necessary to prepare for retirement, I
feel myself alone, bereaved of my last brother, yet I derive a
strong consolation from the unanimous disposition which ap-
pears, in all ages and classes, to mingle their sorrows with mine
on this common calamity to the world.
The life of our Washington cannot suffer by a comparison
with those of other countries who have been most celebrated
and exalted by fame. The attributes and decorations of royalty
could have only served to eclipse the majesty of those virtues
which made him. from being a modest citizen, a more resplend-
ent luminary. Misfortune, had he lived, could hereafter have
sullied his glory only with those superficial minds, who, believ-
ing that characters and actions are marked by success alone,
OFFICIAL. 143
rarely deserve to enjoy it. Malice could never blast his honor,
and envy made him a singular exception to her universal rule.
For himself, he had lived enough to life and to glory. For his
fellow-citizens, if their prayers could have been answered, he
would have been immortal. For me, his departure is at a
most unfortunate moment. Trusting, however, in the wise and
righteous dominion of Providence over the passions of men,
and the results of their counsels and actions, as well as over
their lives, nothing remains for me but humble resignation.
His example is now complete, and it will teach wisdom and
virtue to magistrates, citizens, and men, not only in the present
age, but in future generations, as long as our history shall be
read. If a Trajan found a Pliny, a Marcus Aurelius can never
want biographers, eulogists, or historians.
John Adams.
SPEECH TO BOTH HOUSES OF CONGRESS,
22 November, 1800.
Gentlemen of the Senate, and
Gentlemen of the House of Representatives,
Immediately after the adjournment of Congress at their last
session in Philadelphia, I gave directions, in compliance with
the laws, for the removal of the public offices, records, and
property. These directions have been executed, and the public
officers have since resided, and conducted the ordinary business
of the government, in this place.
I congratulate the people of the United States on the assem-
bling of Congress at the permanent seat of their government;
and I congratulate you, gentlemen, on the prospect of a resi-
dence not to be changed. Although there is cause to apprehend
that accommodations are not now so complete as might be
wished, yet there is gi-eat reason to believe that this inconve-
nience will cease with the present session.
It would be unbecoming the representatives of this nation
to assemble, for the first time, in this solemn temple, without
looking up to the Supreme Ruler of the universe, and imploring
his blessing.
144 OFFICIAL.
May this territory be the residence of virtue and happiness!
In this city may that piety and virtue, that wisdom and magna-
nimity, that constancy and self-government, which adorned the
great character whose name it bears, be forever held in venera-
tion ! Here, and throughout om- country, may simple manners,
pure morals, and true religion, flourish forever I
It is with you, gentlemen, to consider whether the local
powers over the district of Columbia, vested by the Constitution
in the Congress of the United States, shall be immediately
exercised. If, in your opinion, this important trust ought now
to be executed, you cannot fail, while performing it, to take
into view the future probable situation of the territory for the
happiness of which you are about to provide. You will con-
sider it as the capital of a great nation, advancing, with
unexampled rapidity, in arts, in commerce, in wealth, and in
population ; and possessing within itself those energies and
resources, which, if not thrown away or lameaitably misdirected,
secure to it a long course of prosperity and self-government.
In compliance with a law of the last session of Congress, the
officers and soldiers of the temporary army have been discharged.
It affords real pleasure to recollect the honorable testimony they
gave of the patriotic motives which brought them into the ser-
vice of their country by the readiness and regularity with which
they returned to the station of private citizens.
It is in every point of view of such primary importance to
carry the laws into prompt and faithful execution, and to render
that part of the administration of justice which the Constitution
and laws devolve on the federal courts, as convenient to the
people as may consist with their present circumstances, that I
cannot omit once more to recommend to your serious consider-
ation the judiciary system of the United States. No subject is
more interesting than this to the public happiness, and to none
can those improvements which may have been suggested by
experience, be more beneficially applied.
A treaty of amity and commerce with the King of Prussia
has been concluded and ratified. The ratifications have been
exchanged, and I have directed the treaty to be promulgated by
proclamation.
The difficulties, which suspended the execution of the sixth
article of our treaty of amity, commerce, and navigation with
OFFICIAL. 145
Great Britain, have not yet been removed. The negotiation on
this subject is still depending. As it must be for the interest
and honor of both nations to adjust this difference with good
faith, I indulge confidently the expectation that the sincere
endeavors of the government of the United States to bring it to
an amicable termination, will not be disappointed.
The envoys extraordinary and ministers plenipotentiary from
the United States to France, were received bj the first Consul
with the respect due to their character ; and three persons, with
equal powers, were appointed to treat with them. Although at
the date of the last official intelligence the negotiation had not
terminated, yet it is to be hoped that our efforts to effect an
accommodation will at length meet with a success proportioned
to the sincerity with which they have been so often repeated.
While our best endeavors for the preservation of harmony
with all nations will continue to be used, the experience of the
world and our own experience admonish us of the insecurity of
trusting too confidently to their success. We cannot, without
committing a dangerous imprudence, abandon those measures
of self-protection, which are adapted to our situation, and to
which, notwithstanding our pacific policy, the violence and
injustice of others may again compel us to resort. While our
vast extent of sea-coast, the commercial and agricultural habits
of our people, the great capital they will continue to trust on
the ocean, suggest the system of defence which will be most
beneficial to ourselves, our distance from Europe, and our
resources for maritime strength, will enable us to employ it
with eflect. Seasonable and systematic arrangements, so far
as our resources will justify, for a navy adapted to defensive
war, and which may in case of necessity be quickly brought into
use, seem to be as much recommended by a wise and true
economy as by a just regard for our future tranquillity, for the
safety of our shores, and for the protection of our property
committed to the ocean.
The present navy of the United States, called suddenly into
existence by a great national exigency, has raised us in our
own esteem ; and by the protection afforded to our commerce,
has effected to the extent of our expectations the objects for
which it was created.
In connection with a navy ought to be contemplated the
VOL. IX. 13 J
146 OFFICIAL.
fortification of some of our principal seaports and harbors. A
variety of considerations, which will readily suggest themselves,
urge an attention to this measure of precaution. To give
security to our principal ports, considerable sums have already
been expended, but the works remain incomplete. It is for
Congress to determine whether additional appropriations shall
be made, in order to render competent to the intended purposes
the fortifications which have been commenced.
The manufacture of arms within the United States still invites
the attention of the national legislature. At a considerable
expense to the public this manufactory has been brought to
such a state of maturity as, with continued encouragement, will
supersede the necessity of future importations from foreign
countries.
Gentlemen of the House of Eepresentatives,
I shall direct the estimates of the appropriations necessary
for the ensuing year, together with an account of the public
revenue and expenditure to a late period, to be laid before you.
I observe with much satisfaction that the product of the
revenue during the present year has been more considerable
than during any former equal period. This result affords con-
clusive evidence of the great resources of this country, and of
the wisdom and efficiency of the measures which have been
adopted by Congress for the protection of commerce and pre-
servation of public credit.
Gentlemen of the Senate,
AND Gentlemen of the House of Representatives,
As one of the grand community of nations, our attention is
irresistibly drawn to the important scenes which surround us.
If they have exhibited an uncommon portion of calamity, it
is the province of humanity to deplore, and of wisdom to
avoid, the causes which may have produced it. If, turning
our eyes homeward, we find reason to rejoice at the prospect
which presents itself; if we perceive the interior of our country
prosperous, free, and happy; if all enjoy in safety, under the
protection of laws emanating only from the general will, the
fruits of their own labor, we ought to fortify and cling to those
institutions which have been the source of much real felicity,
OFFICIAL. 147
and resist with unabating perseverance the progress of those
dangerous innovations which may diminish their influence.
To your patriotism, gentlemen, has been confided the honor-
able duty of guarding the public interests ; and while the past
is to your country a sure pledge that it will be faithfully dis-
charged, permit me to assm'e you that your labors to promote
the general happiness will receive from me the most zealous
cooperation.
John Adams.
reply to the answer of the senate.
Mr. President, axd
Gentlemen of the Senate,
For this excellent address, so respectful to the memory of my
illustrious predecessor, which I receive from the Senate of the
United States at this time and in this place, with peculiar
satisfaction, I pray you to accept of my unfeigned acknowledg-
ments. With you I ardently hope that permanence and sta-
bility will be communicated as well to the government itself,
as to its beautiful and commodious seat. With you I deplore
the death of that hero and sage who bore so honorable and
efficient a part in the establishment of both. Great, indeed,
would have been my gratification, if his sum of earthly happi-
ness had been completed by seeing the government thus peace-
ably convened at this place, hiniself at its head. But while
we submit to the decisions of heaven, whose counsels are in-
scrutable to us, we cannot but hope that the members of Con-
gress, the officers of government, and all who inhabit the city
or the country, will retain his virtues in lively recollection, and
make his patriotism, morals, and piety, models for imitation.
I thank you, gentlemen, for your assurance that the several
subjects for legislative consideration, recommended in my com-
munication to both houses, shall receive from the Senate a
deliberate and candid attention.
With you, gentlemen, I sincerely deprecate all spirit of inno-
vation, which may weaken the sacred bond that connects the
different parts of this nation and government ; and with you I
trust, that, under the protection of Divine Providence, the wis-
dom and virtue of our citizens will deliver our national compact
148 OFFICIAL.
unimpaired to a free, prosperous, liappy, and grateful posterity.
To this end it is my fervent prayer, that, in this city, the foun-
tains of wisdom may be always open, and the streams of
eloquence forever flow. Here may the youth of this extensive
country forever look up without disappointment, not only to
the monuments and memorials of the dead, but to the examples
of the living, in the members of Congress and officers of govern-
ment, for finished models of all those virtues, graces, talents,
and accomplishments, which constitute the dignity of human
nature, and lay the only foundation for the prosperity or dura-
tion of empires.
John Adams.
REPLY TO THE ANSWER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
Mr. Speaker, and
Gentlemen of the House of Representatives,
Compelled by the habits of a long life as well as by all the
principles of society and government which I could ever under-
stand and believe, to consider the great body of the people as
the source of all legitimate authority, no less than of all efficient
power, it is impossible for me to receive this address from the
immediate representatives of the American people, at this time
and in this place, without emotions which it would be improper
to express, if any language could convey them.
May the spirit which animated the great founder of this city,
descend to future generations; and may the wisdom, magnani-
mity, and steadiness, which marked the events of his public
life, be imitated in all succeeding ages!
I thank you, gentlemen, for your assurance that the judiciary
system shall receive your deliberate attention.
With you, gentlemen, I sincerely hope, that the final result
of the negotiations now pending with France, may prove as
fortunate to our country as they have been commenced with
sincerity, and prosecuted with deliberation and caution. With
you I cordially agree, that so long as predatory war is carried
on against our commerce, we should sacrifice the interests and
disappoint the expectations of our constituents, should we for a
moment relax that system of maritime defence, which has
OFFICIAL. 149
resulted in such beneficial effects. With you I confidently
believe, that few persons can be found within the United States,
who do not admit that a navy, well organized, must constitute
the natural and efficient defence of this country against all
foreign hostility.
Those who recollect the distress and danger to this country
in former periods from the want of arms, must exult in the
assurance from their representatives, that we shall soon rival
foreign countries, not only in the number, but in the quality of
arms, completed from our own manufactories.
With you, gentlemen, I fully agree that the great increase of
revenue is a proof that the measures of maritime defence were
founded in wisdom. This policy has raised us in the esteem
of foreign nations. That national spirit and those latent ener-
gies which had not been and are not yet fully known to any,
were not entirely forgotten by those who have lived long enough
to see in former times their operation and some of their effects.
Our fellow-citizens were undoubtedly prepared to meet every
event which national honor or national security could render
necessary. These it is to be hoped are secured at the cheapest
and easiest rate. If not, they will be secured at more expense.
I thank you, gentlemen, for your assurance that the various
subjects recommended to your consideration shall receive your
deliberate attention. No further evidence is wanting to con-
vince me of the zeal and sincerity with which the House of
Representatives regard the public good.
I pray you, gentlemen, to accept of my best wishes for your
health and happiness.
John Adams.
13*
MESSAGES TO CONGEESS.
MESSAGE TO THE SENATE;
nominating envoys to france.
31 May, 1797.
. Gentlemen of the Senate,
I nominate General Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, of South
Carolina, Francis Dana, Chief Justice of the State of Massa-
chusetts, and General John Marshall, of Virginia, to be jointly
and severally envoys extraordinary and ministers plenipotentiary
to the French republic.
After mature deliberation on the critical situation of our
relations with France, which have long engaged my serious
attention, I have determined on these nominations of persons
to negotiate with the French republic, to dissipate umbrages,
to remove prejudices, to rectify errors, and adjust all differences
by a treaty between the two powers.
It is, in the present critical and singujai circumstances, of
great importance to engage the confidence of the great portions
of the Union, in the characters employed, and the measures
which may be adopted. I have therefore thought it expedient
to nominate persons of talents and integrity, long known and
intrusted in the three great divisions of the Union ; and, at the
same time, to provide against the cases of death, absence, indis-
position, or other impediment, to invest any one or more of
them with full powers.
John Adams.
OFFICIAL. 151
MESSAGE TO BOTH HOUSES OF CONGRESS;
respecting the territory of the natchez.
12 June, 1797.
Gentlemen of the Senate, and
Gentlemen op the House of Eepresentatives,
I have received information from the commissioner appointed
on the part of the United States, pursuant to the third article
of our treaty with Spain, that the running and marking of the
boundary line between the colonies of East and West Florida
and the territory of the United States, have been delayed by
the officers of his Catholic Majesty ; and that they have declared
their intention to maintain his jurisdiction, and to suspend the
withdrawing of his troops from the military posts they occupy
within the tenitory of the United States, until the two govern-
ments shall, by negotiation, have settled the meaning of the
second article respecting the withdrawing of the troops, garri-
sons, or settlements of either party in the territory of the other ;
that is, whether, when the Spanish garrisons withdraw, they
are to leave the works standing, or to demolish them ; and until,
by an additional article to the treaty, the real property of the
inhabitants shall be secured ; and likewise, until the Spanish
officers are sure the Indians will be pacific. The two fo'st
questions, if to be determined by negotiation, might be made
subjects of discussion for years; and as no limitation of time
can be prescribed to the other, or certainty in the opinion of the
Spanish officers that the Indians will be pacific, it will be im-
possible to suffer it to remain an obstacle to the fulfilment of
the treaty on the part of Spain.
To remove the first difficulty, I have determined to leave it
to the discretion of the officers of his Catholic Majesty, when
they withdraw his troops from the forts within the territory of
the United States, either to leave the works standing, or to
demolish them ; and, to remove the second, I shall cause an
assurance to be published, and to be particularly communicated
to the minister of his Catholic Majesty, and to the Governor of
Louisiana, that the settlers or occupants of the lands in question
shall not be disturbed in their possessions by the troops of the
152 OFFICIAL.
United States ; but, on the contrary, that they shall be protected
in all their lawful claims ; and, to prevent or remove every
doubt on this point, it merits the consideration of Congress,
whether it will not be expedient immediately to pass a law,
giving positive assurances to those inhabitants, who, by fair
and regular grants, or by occupancy, have obtained legal titles
or equitable claims to lands in that country, prior to the final
ratification of the treaty between the United States and Spain,
on the twenty-fifth of April, 1796.
This country is rendered peculiarly valuable by its inhabitants,
who are represented to amount to nearly four thousand, gene-
rally well affected, and much attached to the United States, and
zealous for the establishment of a government under their
authority.
I therefore recommend to your consideration the expediency
of erecting a government in the district of the Natchez, similar
to that established for the territory north-west of the river Ohio,
but w^ith certain modifications relative to titles or claims of
land, whether of individuals or companies, or to claims of juris-
diction of any individual State.
John Adams.
MESSAGE TO BOTH HOUSES OF CONGRESS;
ON AFFAIRS WITH ALGIERS.
23 JUXE, 1797.
Gentlemen of the Senate, and
Gentlemen of the House of Representatives,
The Dey of Algiers has manifested a predilection for Ameri-
can built vessels, and, in consequence, has desired that two
vessels might be constructed and equipped, as cruisers, accord-
ing to the choice and taste of Captain O'Brien. The cost of
two such vessels, built with live oak and cedar, and coppered,
with guns and all other equipments complete, is estimated at
forty-five thousand dollars. The expense of navigating them
to Algiers may, perhaps, be compensated by the freight of the
stores with which they may be loaded on account of our stipu-
lations by treaty with the Dey.
OFFICIAL. 153
A compliance with the Dcy's request appears to rac to be
of serious importance. He will repay the whole expense of
building and equipping the two vessels ; and as he has advanced
the price of our peace with Tripoli, and become pledged for
that of Tunis, the United States seem to be under peculiar
obligations to provide this accommodation ; and I trust that
Congress will authorize the advance of money necessary for
that purpose.
It also appears to be of importance to place at Algiers a per-
son as consul, in whose integrity and ability much confidence
may be placed, to whom a considerable latitude of discretion
should be allowed for the interest of the United States in rela-
tion to their commerce. That country is so remote as to render
it impracticable for the consul to ask and receive instructions in
sudden emergencies. He may sometimes find it necessary to
make instant engagements for money, or its equivalent, to pre-
vent greater expenses or more serious evils. We can hardly hope
to escape occasions of discontent proceeding from the regency,
or arising from the misconduct or even the misfortunes of our
commercial vessels navigating in the Mediterranean sea ; and
unless the causes of discontent are speedily removed, the resent-
ment of the regency may be exerted with precipitation on our
defenceless citizens and their property, and thus occasion a
tenfold expense to the United States. For these reasons it
appears to me to be expedient to vest the consul at Algiers
with a degree of discretionary power, which can be requisite in
no other situation. And to encourage a person deserving the
public confidence to accept so expensive and responsible a
situation, it appears indispensable to allow him a handsome
salary. I should confer on such a consul a superintending
power over the consulates for the States of Tunis and Tripoli,
especially in respect to pecuniary engagements, which should
not be made without his approbation.
While the present salary of two thousand dollars a year ap-
pears adequate to the consulates of Tunis and Tripoli, twice
that sum probably will be requisite for Algiers.
.ToniN Adams.
154 OFFICIAL.
MESSAGE TO BOTH HOUSES OF CONGRESS;
communicating information respecting spain.
3 July, 1797.
Gentlkmen of the Senate, and
Gentlemen of the House of Representatives,
The whole of the intelligence which has for some time past
been received from abroad, the correspondences between this
government and the ministers of the belligerent powers residing
here, and the advices from the officers of the United States,
civil and military, upon the frontiers, all conspire to show in a
very strong light the critical situation of our country. That
Congress might be enabled to form a more perfect judgment of
it, and of the measures necessary to be taken, I have directed
the proper officers to prepare such collections of extracts from
the public correspondences as might affi^rd the clearest informa-
tion. The reports made to me from the Secretary of State and
the Secretary at War, with the collection of documents from
each of them, are now communicated to both houses of Con-
gress. I have desired that the message, reports, and documents,
may be considered as confidential, merely that the members of
both houses of Congress may be apprised of their contents
before they should be made public. As soon as the houses
shall have heard them, I shall submit to their discretion the
publication of the whole or any such parts of them as they shall
judge necessary or expedient for the public good.
John Adams.
MESSAGE TO BOTH HOUSES OF CONGRESS;
announcing the ratification of an amendment
OF THE constitution.
8 January, 1798.
Gentlemen of the Senate, and
Gentlemen of the House op Representatives,
I have now an opportunity to transmit to Congress a report
of the Secretary of State, with a copy of an act of the legis-
OFFICIAL. 155
lature of the State of Kentucky, consenting to the ratification
of the amendment of the Constitution of the United States,
proposed by Congress in their resolution of the second day of
December, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-three, rela-
tive to the suability of States. This amendment having been
adopted by three fourths of the several States, may now be
declared to be a part of the Constitution of the United States.
John Adams.
MESSAGE TO BOTH HOUSES OF CONGRESS;
rei, ative to a french privateer.
5 February, 1798.
Gentlemen of the Senate, and
Gentlemen of the House of Representatives,
I have received a letter from his Excellency Charles Pinckney,
Esquire, Governor of the State of South Carolina, dated on
the twenty-second of October, 1797, inclosing a number of
depositions of witnesses to several captures and outrages com-
mitted within and near the limits of the United States by a
French privateer belonging to Cape Francois or Monte Christo,
called the Vertitude or Fortitude, and commanded by a person
of the name of Jordon or Jourdain, and particularly upon an
English merchant ship, named the Oracabissa, which he first
plundered, and then burned with the rest of her cargo of great
value, within the territory of the United States, in the harbor
of Charleston, on the seventeenth day of October last, copies of
which letter and depositions, and also of several other deposi-
tions relative to the same subject, received from the collector
of Charleston, are herewith communicated.
Whenever the channels of diplomatical communication be-
tween the United States and France shall be opened, I shall
demand satisfaction for the insult and reparation for the injury.
I have transmitted these papers to Congress, not so much for
the purpose of communicating an account of so daring a viola-
tion of the territory of the United States, as to show the pro-
priety and necessity of enabling the executive authority of
government to take measures for protecting the citizens of the
United States, and such foreigners as have a right to enjoy their
156 OFFICIAL.
peace and the protection of their laws within their limits, in
that as well as some other harbors, which are equally exposed.
John Adams.
MESSAGE TO BOTH HOUSES OF CONGRESS;
transmitting despatches from france.
5 March, 1798.
Gentlemen of the Senate, and
Gentlemen of the House of Representatives,
The first despatches from our envoys extraordinary, since
their arrival at Paris, were received at the Secretary of State's
office, at a late hour the last evening. They are all in a cha-
racter, which will require some days to be deciphered, except
the last, which is dated the eighth of January, 1798. The
contents of this letter are of so much importance to be imme-
diately made known to Congress and to the public, especially
to the mercantile part of our fellow-citizens, that I have thought
it my duty to communicate them to both Houses, without loss
of time.
John Adams.
MESSAGE TO BOTH HOUSES OF CONGRESS;
transmitting despatches from FRANCE.
19 March, 1798.
Gentlemen of the Senate, and
Gentlemen op the House of Representatives,
Tlie despatches from the envoys extraordinary of the United
States to the French republic, which were mentioned in my
message to both houses of Congress of the fifth instant, have
been examined and maturely considered.
"While I feel a satisfaction in informing you that their exer-
tions for the adjustment of the differences between the two
nations have been sincere and unremitted, it is incumbent on
me to declare, that I perceive no ground of expectation that the
objects of their mission can be accomplished on terms compatible
with the safety, honor, or the essential interests of the nation.
OFFICIAL. . 157
This result cannot with justice be attributed to any want of
moderation on the part of this government, or to any indisposi-
tion to forego secondary interests for the preservation of peace.
Knowing it to be my duty and believing it to be your wish, as
well as that of the great body of the people, to avoid, by all
reasonable concessions, any participation in the contentions of
Europe, the powers vested in our envoys were commensurate
with a liberal and pacific policy, and that high confidence which
might justly be reposed in the abilities, patriotism, and integrity
of the characters to whom the negotiation was committed.
After a careful review of the whole subject, with the aid of all
the information I have received, I can discern nothing, which
could have insured or contributed to success, that has been
omitted on my part, and nothing further which can be attempted,
consistently with maxims for which our country has contended
at every hazard, and which constitute the basis of our national
sovereignty.
Under these circumstances I cannot forbear to reiterate the
recommendations which have been formerly made, and to ex-
hort you to adopt, wuth promptitude, decision, and unanimity,
such measures as the ample resources of the country aftbrd, for
the protection of our seafaring and commercial citizens, for the
defence of any exposed portions of our territory, for replenish-
ing our arsenals, establishing founderies and military manufac-
tories, and to provide such efficient revenue as will be neces-
sary to defray exti*aordinary expenses, and supply the deficiencies
which may be occasioned by depredations on our commerce.
The present state of things is so essentially diflfercnt from
that in which insti'uctions were given to collectors to restrain
vessels of the United States from sailing in an armed condition,
that the principle on which those orders were issued, has ceased
to exist. I therefore deem it proper to inform Congress, that I
no longer conceive myself justifiable in continuing them, unless
in particular cases, where there may be reasonable ground of
suspicion that such vessels are intended to be employed con-
trary to law.
In all your proceedings, it will be important to manifest a
zeal, vigor, and concert, in defence of the national rights, pro-
portioned to the danger with which they are threatened.
John Adams.
VOL. IX. 14
158 OFFICIAL.
MESSAGE TO BOTH HOUSES OF CONGRESS;
TRANSMITTING DESPATCHES FROM FRANCE.
3 Apkil, 1798.
Gentlemen of the Senate, and
Gentlemen of the House of Representatives,
In compliance with the request of the House of Representa-
tives, expressed in their resolution of the second of this month,
I transmit to both houses those instructions to and despatches
from the envoys extraordinary to the French republic, which
were mentioned in my message of the nineteenth of March
last, omitting only some names and a few expressions descrip-
tive of the persons.
I request that they may be considered in confidence, until
the members of Congress are fully possessed of their contents,
and shall have had opportunity to deliberate on the conse-
quences of their publication ; after which time, I submit them
to your wisdom.
John Adams.
MESSAGE TO BOTH HOUSES OF CONGRESS;
ON THE STATE OF AFFAIRS AVITH FRANCE.
21 June, 1798.
Gentlemen of the Senate, and
Gentlemen of the House of Representatives,
While I congratulate you on the arrival of General Marshall,
one of our late envoys extraordinary to the French republic, at
a place of safety, where he is justly held in honor, I think it
my duty to communicate to you a letter received by him from
Mr. Gerry, the only one of the three who has not received his
cong-e. This letter, together with another from the minister of
foreign relations to him, of the third of April, and his answer
of the fourth, will show the situation in which he remains, his
intentions, and prospects.
I presume that before this time he has received fresh instruc-
OFFICIAL. 159
tions (a copy of which accompanies this message) to consent
to no loans ; and therefore the negotiation may be considered
at an end.
I will never send another minister to France, without assur-
ances that he will be received, respected, and honored as the
representative of a great, free, powerful, and independent nation.
John Adams.
aiESSAGE TO THE SENATE;
transmitting a letter from george washington.
17 July, 1798.
Gentlemen of the Senate,
Believing that the letter received this morning from Genera
Washington will give high satisfaction to the Senate, I trans-
mit them a copy of it, and congratulate them and the public
on this great event, the General's acceptance of his appoint-
ment as Lieutenant-General and Commander-in-chief of the
army.
John Adams.
MESSAGE TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES;
respecting certain acts of british naval officers.
8 January, 1799.
In compliance with your desire, expressed in your resolution
of the 2d of this month, I lay before you an extract of a letter
from George C. Morton, acting consul of the United States at
the Havana, dated the 18th of November, 1798, to the Secretary
of State, with a copy of a letter from him to L. Trezevant and
William Timmons, Esquires, with their answer. Although
your request extends no further than such information as has
been received, yet it may be a satisfaction to you to know, that
as soon as this intelligence was communicated to me, circular
orders were given by my direction to all the commanders of our
vessels of war, a copy of which is also herewith transmitted. I
160 OFFICIAL.
also directed this intelligence and these orders to be communi-
cated to his Britannic Majesty's envoy extraordinary and minis-
ter plenipotentiary to the United States, and to om- minister
plenipotentiary to the court of Great Britain, with instructions
to him to make the proper representation to that government
upon this subject.
It is but justice to say, that this is the first instance of mis-
behavior of any of the British officers towards our vessels of
war, that has come to my knowledge. According to all the
representations that I have seen, the flag of the United States,
and their officers and men, have been treated by the civil and
military authority of the British nation, in Nova Scotia, the
"West India islands, and on the ocean, with uniform civility.,
politeness, and friendship. I have no doubt that this first in
stance of misconduct will be readily corrected.
John Adams.
circular,
To the Com7nanders of Armed Vessels in the Service of the
United States, g-iven at the Navy Department, December 29th.
1798.
Sir, — It is the positive command of the President that on
no pretence whatever you permit the public vessel of war under
your command to be detained or searched, nor any of the officers
or men belonging to her to be taken from her, by the ships or
vessels of any foreign nation, so long as you are in a capacity
to repel such outrage on the honor of the American flag. If
force should be exerted to compel your submission, you are to
resist that force to the utmost of your power, and when over-
powered by superior force, you are to strike your flag, and thus
yield your vessel as well as your men ; but never your men
without your vessel.
You will remember, however, that your demeanor be respect-
ful and friendly to the vessels and people of all nations in amity
with the United States ; and that you avoid as carefully the
commission of, as the submission to, insult or injury.
I have the honor to be, &c.
Ben. Stoddert.
OFFICIAL. 161
LIESSAGE TO BOTH HOUSES OF CONGRESS;
teans hitting a french decree respecting-
neutral sailors.
28 January, 1799.
An edict of the executive directory of the French republic of
the 29th of October, 1798, inclosed in a letter from our minister
plenipotentiary in London, of the 16th of November, is of so
much importance, that it cannot be too soon communicated to
you and the public.
John Adams.
MESSAGE TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES;
RESPECTING THE SUSPENSION OF A FRENCH DECREE
15 February, 1799.
In pursuance of the request in your resolve of yesterday, I
lay before you such information as I have received, touching a
suspension of the arret of the French republic communicated
to your house by my message of the 28th of January last. But
if the execution of that arret be suspended, or even if it were
repealed, it should be remembered that the arret of the executive
directory of the 2d of March, 1797, remains in force, the third
article of which subjects, explicitly and exclusively, American
seamen to be treated as pirates, if found on board ships of the
enemies of France.
John Adams.
MESSAGE TO THE SENATE;
nominating an envoy to france.
18 February, 1799.
Gentlemen of the Senate,
I transmit to you a document, which seems to be intended
to be a compliance with a condition mentioned at the conclu-
sion of my message to Congress of the twenty-first of June last.
14* K
162 OFFICIAL.
Always disposed and ready to embrace every plausible ap-
pearance of probability of preserving or restoring tranquillity, I
nominate William Vans Murray, our minister resident at the
Hague, to be minister plenipotentiary of the United States to
the French republic.
If the Senate shall advise and consent to his appointment,
effectual care shall be taken in his instructions that he shall
not go to France without direct and unequivocal assurances
from the French government, signified by their minister of
foreign relations, that he shall be received in character, shall
enjoy the privileges attached to his character by the law of
nations, and that a minister of equal rank, title, and powers,
shall be appointed to treat with him, to discuss and conclude
all controversies between the two republics by a new treaty.
John Adams.
MESSAGE TO THE SENATE;
NOMINATING THRKE ENVOYS TO FRANCE.
25 February, 1799.
Gentlemen of the Senate,
The proposition of a fresh negotiation with France, in con-
sequence of advances made by the French government, has
excited so general an attention and so much conversation, as to
have given occasion to many manifestations of the public
opinion ; from which it appears to me that a new modification
of the embassy will give more general satisfaction to the legis-
lature and to the nation, and perhaps better answer the purposes
we have in view.
It is upon this supposition and with this expectation that I
now nominate
Oliver Ellsworth, Esquire, Chief Justice of the United States;
Patrick Henry, Esquire, late Governor of Virginia ; and
William Vans Murray, Esquire, our minister resident at the
Hague ; to be envoys extraordinary and ministers plenipotentiary
to the French republic, with full powers to discuss and settle,
by a treaty, all controversies between the United States and
France.
OFFICIAL. 163
It is not intended that the two former of these gentlemen
shall embark for Europe, until they shall have received, from the
Executive Directory, assurances, signified by their secretary of
foreign relations, that they shall be received in character, that
they shall enjoy all the prerogatives attached to that character
by the law of nations, and that a minister or ministers, of equal
powers, shall be appointed and commissioned to treat with them.
John Adams.
MESSAGE TO BOTH HOUSES OF CONGRESS;
announcing the decease of george washington.
19 December, 1799.
Gentlemen of the Senate, and
Gentlemen of the House of Representatives,
The letter herewith transmitted will inform you that it has
pleased Divine Providence to remove from this life our excellent
fellow-citizen, George Washington, by the purity of his charac-
ter and a long series of services to his country, rendered illus-
trious through the world. It remains for an affectionate and
grateful people, in whose hearts he can never die, to pay suit-
able honors to his memory.
John Adams.
Mount Vernon, 15 December, 1799.
Sir, — It is with inexpressible grief that I have to announce
to you the death of the great and good General Washington.
He died last evening, between ten and eleven o'clock, after a
short illness of about twenty hours. His disorder was an in-
flammatory sore throat, which proceeded from a cold, of which
he made but little complaint on Friday. On Saturday morn-
ing, about three o'clock, he became ill. Doctor Craik attended
him in the morning, and Doctor Dick, of Alexandria, and Doctor
Brown, of Port Tobacco, were soon after called in. Every
medical assistance was offered, but without the desired effect.
His last scene corresponded with the whole tenor of his life ;
not a groan, nor a complaint escaped him in extreme distress.
164 OFFICIAL.
With perfect resignation, and in full possession of his reason,
he closed his well-spent life.
I have the honor to be, with the highest respect. Sir, your
most obedient and very humble servant.
Tobias Lear.
MESSAGE TO BOTH HOUSES OF CONGRESS;
transmitting a i, etter of martha washington.
6 January, 1800.
Gentlemen op the Senate, and
Gentlemen op the House op Eepresentatives,
In compliance with the request in one of the resolutions of
Congress, of the 21st of December last, I transmitted a copy of
those resolutions by my Secretary, Mr. Shaw, to Mrs. Washing-
ton, asisuring her of the profound respect Congress will ever
bear to her person and character, of their condolence in the
late afflicting dispensation of Providence, and entreating her
assent to the interment of the remains of General George
Washington, in the manner expressed in the first resolution.
As the sentiments of that virtuous lady, not less beloved by this
nation than she is at present greatly afflicted, can never be so
well expressed as in her own words, I transmit to Congress her
original letter.
It would be an attempt of too much delicacy to make any
comments upon it; but there can be no doubt that the nation
at large, as well as all the branches of the government, will be
highly gratified by any arrangement which may diminish the
sacrifice she makes of her individual feelings.
John Adams.
Mount Vernon, 31 December, 1799.
Sir, — While I feel with keenest anguish the late dispensa-
tion of Divine Providence, I cannot be insensible to the mourn-
ful tributes of respect and veneration, which are paid to the
memory of my dear deceased husband ; and as his best services
and most anxious wishes were always devoted to the welfare
OFFICIAL. 165
and happiness of his country, to know that they were truly
appreciated and gratefully remembered, affords no inconsider-
able consolation.
Taught by that great example which I have so long had
before me, never to oppose my private wishes to the public
will, I must consent to the request made by Congress, which
you have had the goodness to transmit to me ; and in doing
this I need not, I cannot say what a sacrifice of individual
feeling I make to a sense of public duty.
With grateful acknowledgments and unfeigned thanks for
the personal respect and evidences of condolence expressed by
Congress and yourself, I remain very respectfully. Sir, your
most obedient, humble servant,
Martha "Washington.
MESSAGE TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES;
TRANSMITTING A LETTER OF JOHN RANDOLPH, JR.
14 January, 1800.
Gentlemen of the House of Representatives,
As the inclosed letter from a member of your House, re-
ceived by me in the night of Saturday, the 11th instant, relates
to the privileges of the House, which, in my opinion, ought to
be inquired into in the House itself, if any where, I have thought
proper to submit the whole letter and its tendencies to your
consideration, without any other comments on its matter or
style. But as no gross impropriety of conduct, on the part of
persons holding commissions in the army or navy of the United
States, ought to pass without due animadversion, I have directed
the Secretary of War and the Secretary of the Navy to inves-
tigate the conduct complained of, and to report to me, without
delay, such a statement of facts as will enable me to decide on
the course which duty and justice shall appear to prescribe.
John Adams.
166 OFFICIAL.
MESSAGE TO THE SENATE;
transmitting a report of the secretary of state.
21 January, 1801.
Gentlemen of the Senate,
In compliance with your request, signified in your resolution
of the twentieth day of this month, I transmit you a report, made
to me by the Secretary of State on the same day, a letter of our
late envoys to him of the 4th of October last, an extract of a
letter from our minister plenipotentiary in London to him, of
the 22d of November last, and an extract of another letter from
the minister to the secretary of the 31st of October last.
The reasoning in the letter of our late envoys to France is so
fully supported by the writers on the law of nations, particu-
larly by Vattel, as well as by his great masters, Grotius and
Pufendorf, that nothing is left to be desired to settle the point,
that if there be a collision between two treaties, made with
two different powers, the more ancient has the advantage ; for
no engagement contrary to it can be entered into in the treaty
afterwards made; and if this last be found, in any case, incom-
patible wath the more ancient one, its execution is considered
as impossible, because the person promising had not the power
of acting contrary to his antecedent engagement. Although
our right is very clear to negotiate treaties according to our
own ideas of right and justice, honor and good faith, yet it
must always be a satisfaction to know that the judgment of
other nations, with whom we have connection, coincides with
ours, and that we have no reason to apprehend that any dis-
agreeable questions and discussions are likely to arise. The
letters from Mr. King will, therefore, be read by the Senate
with particular satisfaction.
The inconveniences to public officers, and the mischiefs to
the public, arising from the publication of the despatches of
ministers abroad, are so numerous and so obvious, that I request
of the Senate that these papers, especially the letters from Mr.
King, be considered in close confidence.
John Adams.
OFFICIAL. 167
MESSAGE TO THE SENATE;
ON THE CONVENTION WITH FRANCE.
2 March, 1801.
Gentlemen op the Senate,
I have considered the advice and consent of the Senate to
the ratification of the convention with France, under certain
conditions. Although it would have been more conformable to
my own judgment and inclination to have agreed to that instru-
ment unconditionally, yet, as in this point I found I had the
misfortune to differ in opinion from so high a constitutional
authority as the Senate, I judged it more consistent with the
honor and interest of the United States to ratify it under the
conditions prescribed, than not at all. I accordingly nominated
Mr. Bayard, minister plenipotentiary to the French republic,
that he might proceed without delay to Paris to negotiate the
exchange of ratifications ; but as that gentleman has declined
his appointment for reasons equally applicable to every other
person suitable for the service, I shall take no further measures
relative to this business, and leave the convention with all the
documents in the office of State, that my successor may pro-
ceed with them according to his wisdom.
John Adams.
PROCLAMATIONS.
PROCLAMATION!
for an extraordinary session of congress.
25 March, 1797.
Whereas the Constitution of the United States of America
provides that the President may, on extraordinary occasions,
convene both houses of Congress ; and whereas an extraordi-
nary occasion exists for convening Congress, and divers great
and weighty matters claim their consideration, I have therefore
thought it necessary to convene, and I do by these presents
convene the Congress of the United States of America, at the
city of Philadelphia, in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, on
Monday, the fifteenth day of May next, hereby requiring the
senators and representatives in the Congress of the United
States of America, and every of them, that, laying aside all
other matters and cares, they then and there meet and assemble
in Congress, in order to consult and determine on such mea-
sures as in their wisdom shall be deemed meet for the safety and
welfare of the said United States.
In testimony whereof, &c.
John Adams.
^ Such of tlie proclamations have been selected as are connected with the
extraordinary measures of tliis administration. With regard to the mode of
arranging this portion of the work, nothing can be added to the rules laid down
in Sparks's Washington ; Introduction to the fifth part. vol. xii. p. vii.
OFFICIAL. 169
PR0CLA3IATI0N
for a national fast.
23 March, 1798.
As the safety and prosperity of nations ultimately and essen-
tially depend on the protection and blessing of Almighty God ;
and the national acknowledgment of this truth is not only an
indispensable duty, which the people owe to him, but a duty
whose natural influence is favorable to the promotion of that
morality and piety, without which social happiness cannot
exist, nor the blessings of a free government be enjoyed ; and as
this duty, at all times incumbent, is so especially in seasons of
difficulty and of danger, when existing or threatening calamities,
the just judgments of God against prevalent iniquity, are a loud
call to repentance and reformation; and as the United States
of America are at present placed in a hazardous and afflictive
situation, by the unfriendly disposition, condn-ct, and demands
of a foreign power, evinced by repeated refusals to receive our
messengers of reconciliation and peace, by depredations on our
commerce, and the infliction of injuries on very many of our
fellow-citizens, while engaged in their lawful business on the
seas ; — under these considerations, it has appeared to me that
the duty of imploring the mercy and benediction of Heaven on
our country, demands at this time a special attention from its
inhabitants.
I have therefore thought fit to recommend, and I do hereby
recommend, that Wednesday, the 9th day of May next, be
observed throughout the United States, as a day of solemn
humiliation, fasting and prayer; that the citizens of these
States, abstaining on that day from their customary worldly
occupations, offer their devout addresses to the Father of mercies,
agreeably to those forms or methods which they have severally
adopted as the most suitable and becoming; that all religious
congregations do, with the deepest humility, acknowledge before
God the manifold sins and transgressipns with which we are
justly chargeable as individuals and as a nation ; beseeching
him at the same time, of his infinite grace, through the Redeemer
of the world, freely to remit all our offences, and to incline us,
VOL. IX. 15
170 OFFICIAL.
by his Holy Spirit, to that sincere repentance and reformation
which may afford us reason to hope for his inestimable favor
and heavenly benediction ; that it be made the subject of parti-
cular and earnest supplication, that our country may be protected
from all the dangers which threaten it, that our civil and reli-
gious privileges may be preserved inviolate, and perpetuated to
the latest generations, that our public councils and magistrates
may be especially enlightened and directed at this critical period,
that the American people may be united in those bonds of amity
and mutual confidence, and inspired with that vigor and forti-
tude by which they have in times past been so highly distin-
guished, and by which they have obtained such invaluable
advantages, that the health of the inhabitants of our land may
be preserved, and their agriculture, commerce, fisheries, arts, and
manufactures, be blessed and prospered, that the principles of
genuine piety and sound morality may influence the minds and
govern the lives of every description of our citizens, and that
the blessings of peace, freedom, and pure religion, may be
speedily extended to all the nations of the earth.
And finally I recommend, that on the said day, the duties of
humiliation and prayer be accompanied by fervent thanksgiving
to the bestower of every good gift, not only for having hitherto
protected and preserved the people of these United States in
the independent enjoyment of their religious and civil freedom,
but also for having prospered them in a wonderful progress of
population, and for conferring on them many and great favors
conducive to the happiness and prosperity of a nation.
Given, &c.
John Adams.
PROCLAMATION
revoking the exequaturs op the french consuls.
13 July, 1798.
The citizen Joseph Philippe Letombe having heretofore pro-
duced to the President of the United States his commission
as consul-general of the French republic, within the United
States of America, and another commission as consul of the
OFFICIAL. 171
French republic at Philadelphia ; and, in like manner, the citizen
Rosier having produced his commission as vice-consul of the
French republic at New York ; and the citizen Arcambal hav-
ing produced his commission as vice-consul of the French
republic at Newport; and citizen Theodore Charles Mozard
having produced his commission as consul of the French re-
public within the States of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and
Rhode Island ; and the President of the United States having
thereupon granted an exequatur to each of the French citizens
above named, recognizing them in their respective consular
offices above mentioned, and declaring them respectively free to
exercise and enjoy such functions, powers, and privileges as are
allowed to a consul-general, consuls, and vice-consuls of the
French republic, by their treaties, conventions, and laws in that
case made and provided; — and the Congress of the United
States, by their act, passed the seventh day of July, 1798, hav-
ing declared, " That the United States are of right freed and
exonerated from the stipulations of the treaties, and of the
consular convention heretofore concluded between the United
States and France ; and that the same shall not henceforth be
regarded as legally obligatory on the government or citizens of
the United States," and by a former act, passed the 13th day
of May, 1798, the Congress of the United States having " sus-
pended the commercial intercourse between the United States
and France, and the dependencies thereof," which commercial
intercourse was the direct and chief object of the consular
establishment;
And whereas actual hostilities have long been practised on
the commerce of the United States by the cruisers of the French
republic under the orders of its government, which orders that
government refuses to revoke or relax ; and hence it has become
improper any longer to allow the consul-general, consuls, and
vice-consuls of the French republic, above named, or any of its
consular persons or agents heretofore admitted in these United
States, any longer to exercise their consular functions; — these
are therefore to declare, that I do no longer recognize the said
citizen Letombe as consul-general, or consul, nor the said
citizens Rosier and Arcambal as vice-consuls, nor the said
citizen Mozard as consul of the French republic, in any part of
these United States, nor permit them or any other consular
172 OFFICIAL.
persons or agents of the French republic, heretofore admitted in
the United States, to exercise their functions as such ; and 1 do
hereby wholly revoke the exequaturs heretofore given to them
respectively, and do declare them absolutely null and void, from
this day forward.
In testimony whereof, &c.
John Adams.
PROCLAMATION
for a national fast.
6 March, 1799.
As no truth is more clearly taught in the volume of inspiration,
nor any more fully demonstrated by the experience of all ages,
than that a deep sense and a due acknowledgment of the
governing providence of a Supreme Being, and of the account-
ableness of men to Him as the searcher of hearts and righteous
distributor of rewards and punishments, are conducive equally
to the happiness and rectitude of individuals, and to the well-
being of communities ; as it is, also, most reasonable in itself,
that men who are made capable of social acts and relations,
who owe their improvements to the social state, and who derive
their enjoyments from it, should, as a society, make their
acknowledgments of dependence and obligation to Him, who
hath endowed them with these capacities, and elevated them
in the scale of existence by these distinctions ; as it is, likewise,
a plain dictate of duty, and a strong sentiment of nature, that
in circumstances of great urgency and seasons of imminent
danger, earnest and particular supplications should be made to
Him who is able to defend or to destroy; as, moreover, the
most precious interests of the people of the United States are
still held in jeopardy by the hostile designs and insidious acts
of a foreign nation, as well as by the dissemination among them
of those principles, subversive of the foundations of all religious,
moral, and social obligations, that have produced incalculable
mischief and misery in other countries ; and as, in fine, the
observance of special seasons for public religious solemnities.
OFFICIAL. 173
is happily calculated to avert the evils which wc ought to de-
precate, and to excite to the performance of the duties which
we ought to discharge, by calling and fixing the attention of
the people at large to the momentous truths already recited, by
affording opportunity to teach and inculcate them, by animating
devotion, and giving to it the character of a national act :
For these reasons I have thought proper to recommend, and
I do hereby recommend accordingly, that Thursday, the twenty-
fifth day of April next, be observed, throughout the United
States of America, as a day of solemn humiliation, fasting, and
prayer ; that the citizens, on that day, abstain as far as may be
from their secular occupations, devote the time to the sacred
duties of religion, in public and in private ; that they call to
mind our numerous oiTences against the most high God, confess
them before him with the sincerest penitence, implore his par-
doning mercy, through the Great Mediator and Redeemer, for
our past transgressions, and that, through the grace of his Holy
Spirit, we may be disposed and enabled to yield a more suitable
obedience to his righteous requisitions in time to come ; that he
would interpose to arrest the progress of that impiety and licen-
tiousness in principle and practice, so offensive to himself and
so ruinous to mankind ; that he would make us deeply sen-
sible, that " righteousness exalteth a nation, but that sin is the
reproach of any people " ; that he would turn us from our trans-
gressions, and turn his displeasure from us ; that he would
withhold us from unreasonable discontent, from disunion, fac-
tion, sedition, and insurrection ; that he would preserve our
country from the desolating sword ; that he would save our
cities and towns from a repetition of those awful pestilential
visitations under which they have lately suftered so severely,
and that the health of our inhabitants, generally, may be pre-
cious in his sight; that he would favor us with fruitful seasons,
and so bless the labors of the husbandman as that there may
be food in abundance for man and beast; that he would prosper
our commerce, manufactures, and fisheries, and give success to
the people in all their lawful industry and enterprise ; that ho
would smile on our colleges, academies, schools, and seminaries
of learning, and make them nurseries of sound science, morals,
and religion ; that he would bless all magistrates from the
highest to the lowest, give them the true spirit of their station,
174 OFFICIAL.
make them a terror to evil-doers, and a praise to them that do
well ; that he would preside over the councils of the nation at
this critical period, enlighten them to a just discernment of
the public interest, and save them from mistake, division, and
discord ; that he would make succeed our preparations for
defence, and bless our armaments by land and by sea ; that he
would put an end to the effusion of human blood and the
accumulation of human misery among the contending nations
of the earth, by disposing them to justice, to equity, to bene-
volence, and to peace ; and that he would extend the blessings
of knowledge, of true liberty, and of pure and undefiled religion,
throughout the world.
And I do, also, recommend that, with these acts of humilia-
tion, penitence, and prayer, fervent thanksgiving to the author
of all good be united, for the countless favors which he is still
continuing to the people of the United States, and which render
their condition as a nation eminently happy, when compared
with the lot of others.
Given, &c.
John Adams.
PROCLAMATION
concerning the insurrection in pennsylvania.
12 March, 1799.
Whereas, combinations to defeat the execution of the law
for the valuation of lands and dwelling-houses within the United
States, have existed in the counties of Northampton, Mont-
gomery, and Bucks, in the State of Pennsylvania, and have
proceeded in a manner subversive of the just authority of the
government, by misrepresentations to render the laws odious,
by deterring the officers of the United States to forbear the
execution of their functions, and by openly threatening their
lives : And whereas, the endeavors of the well-affected citizens,
as well as of the executive officers, to conciliate a compliance
with those laws, have failed of success, and certain persons in
the county of Northampton, aforesaid, have been hardy enough
to perpetrate certain acts, which, I am advised, amount to
OFFICIAL. 175
treason, being overt acts of levying war against the United
States, the said persons, exceeding one hundred in number, and,
armed and arrayed in a warlike manner, having, on the seventh
day of the present month of March, proceeded to the house of
Abraham Lovering, in the town of Bethlehem, and there com-
pelled William Nicholas, Marshal of the United States, and
for the district of Pennsylvania, to desist from the execution of
certain legal processes in his hands to be executed, and having
compelled him to discharge and set at liberty certain persons
whom he had arrested by virtue of a criminal process, duly issued
for offences against the United States, and having impeded and
prevented the commissioners and assessors, in conformity with
the laws aforesaid, in the county of Northampton aforesaid, by
threats of personal injury, from executing the said laws, avow-
ing as the motive of these illegal and treasonable proceedings
an intention to prevent, by force of arms, the execution of the
said laws, and to withstand by open violence the lawful author-
ity of the government of the United States. And whereas, by
the Constitution and laws of the United States, I am author-
ized, whenever the laws of the United States shall be opposed,
or the execution thereof obstructed, in any State, by combina-
tions too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of
judicial proceedings or by powers vested in the marshal, to call
forth military force to suppress such combinations, and to cause
the laws to be duly executed ; and I have accordingly deter-
mined so to do, under the solemn conviction that the essential
interests of the United States demand it. Wherefore I, John
Adams, President of the United States, do hereby command all
persons being insurgents as aforesaid, and all others whom it
may concern, on or before Monday next, being the eighteenth
day of this present month, to disperse and retire peaceably to
their respective abodes. And I do, moreover, warn all persons
whomsoever, against aiding, abetting, or comforting the perpe-
trators of the aforesaid treasonable acts, and I do require all
officers and others, good and faithful citizens, according to their
respective duties and the laws of the land, to exert their utmost
endeavors to prevent and suppress such dangerous and unlaw-
ful proceedings.
In testimony whereof, &c.
John Adams.
176 OFFICIAL.
PROCLAIVIATION,
opening the trade with certain ports of st. domingo.
26 June, 1799.
Whereas, by an act of the Congress of the United States,
passed the 9th day of February last, entitled "An act further to
suspend the commercial intercourse between the United States
and France, and the dependencies thereof," it is provided, that
at any time after the passing of this act, it shall be lawful for
the President of the United States, if he shall deem it expedient
and consistent with the interest of the United States, by his
order, to remit and discontinue for the time being the restraints
and prohibitions by the said act imposed, either with respect to
the French republic, or to any island, port, or place, belonging
to the said republic, with which a commercial intercour.-<e may
safely be renewed ; and also to revoke such order, whenever in
his opinion the interest of the United States shall require ; and
he is authorized to make proclamation thereof accordingly ;
And whereas the arrangements which have been made at
St. Dom.ingo for the safety of the commerce of the United States,
and for the admission of American vessels into certain ports of
that island, do, in my opinion render it expedient and for the
interest of the United States to renew a commercial intercourse
with such ports ;
Therefore I, John Adams, President of the United States, by
virtue of the powers vested in me by the above recited act, do
hereby remit and discontinue the restraints and prohibitions
therein contained, within the limits and under the regulations
here following, to wit :
1. It shall be lawful for vessels which have departed or may
depart from the United States, to enter the ports of Cape Fran-
cois and Port Republicain, formerly called Port-au-Prince, in
the said island of St. Domingo, on and after the first day of
August next.i
2. No vessel shall be cleared for any other port in St. Do-
mingo than Cape Francois and Port Republicain.
1 A mistake was made here by the Secretary of State. The first of August
was the date of departure from the United States. See vol. viii. p. 661, note.
OFFICIAL. 177
3. It shall be lawful for vessels which shall enter the said
ports of Cape Francois and Port Republicain, after the thirty-
first day of July next, to depart from thence to any port in said
island between Monte Christi on the north and Petit Goave on
the west ; provided it be done with the consent of the govern-
ment of St. Domingo, and pursuant to certificates or passports
expressing such consent, signed by the consul-general of the
United States, or consul residing at the port of departure.
4. All vessels sailing in contravention of these regulations
will be out of the protection of the United States, and be more-
over liable to capture, seizure, and confiscation.
Given under, &c.
John Adams.
PROCLA^IATION,
opening the trade with other ports of st. domingo.
9 May, 1800.
Whereas, by an act of Congress of the United States, passed
the 27th day of February last, entitled "An act further to sus-
pend the commercial intercourse between the United States
and France and the dependencies thereof," it is enacted. That,
any time after the passing of the said act, it shall be lawful for
the President of the United States, by his order, to remit and
discontinue for the time being, whenever he shall deem it ex-
pedient and for the interest of the United States, all or any of
the restraints and prohibitions imposed by the said act, in respect
to the territories of the French republic, or to any island, port, or
place, belonging to the said republic, with w^hich, in his opinion,
a commercial intercourse may be safely renewed ; and to make
proclamation thereof accordingly ; and it is also thereby further
enacted. That the whole of (lie island of Hispaniola shall, for_
the purposes of the said act, be considered as a dependence of
the French republic. And whereas the circumstances of certain
ports and places of the said island not comprised in the procla-
mation of the 26th day of June, 1799, are such that I deem it
expedient, and for the interest of the United States, to remit
and discontinue the restraints and prohibitions imposed by the
178 OFFICIAL.
said act, in respect to those ports and places, in order that a
commercial intercourse with the same may be renewed; —
Therefore I, John Adams, President of the United States, by
virtue of the powers vested in me as aforesaid, do hereby remit
and discontinue the restraints and prohibitions imposed by the
act aforesaid, in respect to all the ports and places in the said
island of Hispaniola, from Monte Christi on the north, round
by the eastern end thereof, as far as the port of Jacmel, on the
south, inclusively. And it shall henceforth be lawful for vessels^
_of the United States to enter and trade at any of the said ports
and places, provided it be done with the consent of the govern-
ment of St. Domingo, And for this purpose it is hereby required
that such vessels first enter the port of Cape Francois or Port
Republicain, in the said island, and there obtain the passports of
the said government, which shall also be signed by the consul-
general or consul of the United States residing at Cape Fran-
cois or Port Republicain, permitting such vessel to go thence
to the other ports and places of the said island herein before
mentioned and described. Of all which the collectors of the
customs and all other officers and citizens of the United States
are to take due notice, and govern themselves.
In testimony, &c.
John Adams.
PROCLAMATION,
granting pardon to the pennsylvania insurgents.
21 May, 1800.
Whereas, the late wicked and treasonable insurrection against
the just authority of the United States, of sundry persons in the
counties of Northampton, Montgomery, and Bucks, in the State
of Pennsylvania, in the year 1799, having been speedily sup-
pressed, without any of the calamities usually attending rebel-
lion; whereupon peace, order, and submission to the laws of
the United States were restored in the aforesaid counties, and
the ignorant, misguided, and misinformed in the counties, have
returned to a proper sense of their duty ; whereby it is become
unnecessary for the public good that any future prosecutions
OFFICIAL. 179
should be commenced or carried on against any person or per-
sons, by reason of their being concerned in the said insurrec-
tion : — wherefore be it known, that I, John Adams, President
of the United States of America, have granted, and by these
presents do grant, a full, free, and absolute pardon, to all and
every person or persons concerned in the said insurrection, ex-
cepting as hereinafter excepted, of all treasons, misprisions of
treason, felonies, misdemeanors, and other crimes by them
respectively done or committed against the United States, in
either of the said counties, before the twelfth day of March in
the year 1799 ; excepting and excluding therefrom every person
who now standeth indicted or convicted of any treason, mis-
prision of treason, or other offence against the United States;
whereby remedying and releasing unto all persons, except as
before excepted, all pains and penalties incurred or supposed to
be incurred for or on account of the premises.
Given, &c.
John Adams.
ADDRESSES.
The number of addresses made to the President during the excitement
occasioned by the apprehension of a war with France, was very great. They
now fill a large box, many of them having long rolls of signatures attached. A
portion of them, with the answei's, were collected and published at Boston in a
volume dedicated to the French Directory, In 1798. Of course, it is not pos-
sible to embrace in this work more than those answers which, for some particular
reason, appear deserving to be included. In some of these cases it has not been
possible to find the exact date of their composition.
to the american academy of arts and sciences.
23 August, 1797.
Gentlemen,
Meeting with you at a regular period established by law, I
expected nothing more than those habitual expressions of your
friendship, which I have constantly received as one of your
associates, upon all such occasions.^ This elegant address,
therefore, as it was not foreseen, is the more acceptable. Com-
ing from gentlemen whose fame for science and literature, as
well as for every civil and political virtue, is not confined to a
single State, nor to one quarter of the world, it does me great
honor. Your congratulations on my election to the office of
first magistrate, in a nation where the rights of men are respected
and truly supported, deserve my best thanks.
The commands of the public have obliged me to reside in
foreign countries and distant States for almost the whole period
of the existence of our academy ; but no part of my time has
ever been spent with more real satisfaction to myself than the
1 Mr. Adams was the President of the Academy.
OFFICIAL. 181
few hours, which the course of events has permitted me to pass
in your society.
Your exertions at home and extensive correspondences abroad
are every day adding to the Ivnowledge of our country, and its
improvement in useful arts; and I have only to regret that
indispensable avocations have prevented me from assisting in
your labors and endeavoring to share in the glory of your suc-
cess.
The unanimity with which the members of this academy, as
well as of the university at Cambridge, and the whole body of
the clergy of this commonwealth, (all so happily connected
together,) are attached to the union of our American States,
their constitutions of government, and the federal administra-
tion, is the happiest omen of the future peace, liberty, safety,
and prosperity of our country. The rising generation of Ame-
ricans, the most promising and perhaps the most important
youth which the human species can boast, educated in such
principles and under such examples, cannot fail to answer the
high expectations which the world has formed of their future
wisdom, virtues, and energies.
To succeed in the administration of the government of the
United States, after a citizen, whose great talents, indefatigable
exertions, and disinterested patriotism had carried the gratitude
of his country and the applause of the world to the highest
pitch, was indeed an arduous enterprise. It was not without
much diffidence, and many anxious apprehensions that I engaged
in the service. But it has been with inexpressible gratitude and
pleasure that I have everywhere found, in my fellow-citizens, an
almost universal disposition to alleviate the burden as much
as possible, by the cheerful and generous support of their affec-
tionate countenance and cordial approbation. Nothing of the
kind has more tenderly touched me, than the explicit sanction
you have been pleased to express of the measures I have hitherto
adopted.
Permit me, gentlemen, to join in your fervent prayers, that
the incomprehensible Source of light and of power may direct
us all, and crown with success all our efforts to promote the
welfare of our country and the happiness of mankind.
John Adams.
VOL. IX. 1^
182 OFFICIAL.
TO THE MAYOR, ALDERMEN, AND CITIZENS OF THE CITY OF
PHILADELPHIA.
April, 1798.
Gentlemen,
Never, as I can recollect, were any class of my fellow-citizens
more welcome to me, on any occasion, than the mayor, alder-
men, and citizens of the city of Philadelphia upon this.
At a time, when all the old republics of Europe are crumbling
into dust, and others forming, whose destinies are dubious ;
when the monarchies of the old world are some of them fallen,
and others trembling to their foundations ; when our own infant
republic has scarcely had time to cement its strength or decide
its own practicable form ; when these agitations of the human
species have affected our people and produced a spirit of party,
which scruples not to go all lengths of profligacy, falsehood, and
malignity, in defaming our government; your approbation and
confidence are to me a great consolation. Under your imme-
diate observation and inspection, the principal operations of the
government are directed, and to you, both characters and con-
duct must be intimately known.
I am but one of the American people, and my fate and for-
tune must be decided with theirs. As far as the forces of
nature may remain to me, I will not be wanting in my duties
to them, nor will I harbor a suspicion that they will faU to
afford me all necessary aid and support.
While, with the greatest pleasure, I reciprocate your congi'a-
tulations on the prospect of unanimity that now presents itself
to the hopes of every American, and on that spirit of patriotism
and independence that is rising into active exertion, in opposition
to seduction, domination, and rapine, I offer a sincere prayer that
the citizens of Philadelphia may persevere in the virtuous course
and maintain the honorable character of their ancestors, and be
protected from every calamity, physical, moral, and political.
John Adams.
OFFICIAL. 183
TO THE CITIZENS OF PHILADELPHIA, THE DISTRICT OF SOUTH-
WARK, AND THE NORTHERN LIBERTIES.
26 April, 1798.
Gentlemen,
Many of the nations of the earth, disgusted with their present
governments, seem determined to dissolve them, without know-
ing what other forms to substitute in their places. And ignorance,
with all the cruel intolerance of the most bloody superstitions
that ever have existed, is imposing its absurd dogmas by the
sword, without the smallest attention to that emulation universal
in the human heart, which is a great spring of generous action,
when wisely regulated, but the never-failing source of anarchy
and tyranny, when uncontrolled by the Constitution of the
State. As the United States are a part of the society of
mankind, and are closely connected with several nations now
struggling in arms, the present period is indeed pregnant with
events of the highest importance to their happiness and safety.
In such a state of things your implicit approbation of the
general system, and the particular measures of the government,
your generous feelings of resentment at the wrongs and offences
committed against it, and at the menaces of others still more
intolerable, your candid acknowledgment of the blessings you
enjoy under its free and equal Constitution, your determination
at every hazard to maintain your freedom and independence,
and to support the measures which may be thought necessary
to support the Constitution, freedom, and independence of the
United States, do you great honor as patriots and citizens ; and
your communication of these spirited sentiments to me deserves
my best thanks.
John Adams
184 OFFICIAL.
TO THE INHABITANTS OF PROVIDENCE, R. I.
30 April, 1798.
Gentlemen,
The respectfal address from the inhabitants of Providence,
who have been my friends and neighbors from my youth, was by
no means necessary to convince me of their affectionate attach-
ment.
Imagination can scarcely conceive a stronger contrast than
has lately been disclosed between the views of France and those
of the United States. I will not distinguish between the views
of the government and those of the nations ; if in France they
are different, the nation, whose right it is, will soon show they
are so ; if in America they are the same, this fact also will be
shown by the nation in a short time in a strong light. I can-
not, however, see in this contrast a sufficient cause of disquiet-
ing apprehensions of hostilities from that republic. Hostilities
have already come thick upon us by surprise from that quarter.
If others are coming, "we shall be better prepared to meet and
repel them.
When we were the first to acknowledge the legitimate origin
of the French republic, we discovered at least as much zeal,
sincerity, and honesty of heart, as we did of knowledge of the
subject, or foresight of its consequences. The ill success of
those proofs which the United States have given of their sincere
desire to preserve an impartial neutrality, and of their repeated
negotiations for redress of wrongs, have demonstrated that other
means must be resorted to in order to obtain it.
I agree entirely with you in acquitting in general those of our
citizens who have too much attached themselves to European
politics, of any treacherous defection from the cause of their
country. The French revolution was a spectacle so novel, and
the cause was so cora.plicated, that I have ever acknowledged
myself incompetent to judge of it, as it concerned the happiness
of France, or operated on that of mankind. My countrymen
in general were, I believe, as ill qualified as myself to decide ;
the French nation alone had the right and the capacity, and to
them it should have been resigned. We should have suspended
OFFICIAL. 185
our judgments, and been as neutral and impartial between the
parties in France as between the nations of Europe.
The honor of our nation is now universally seen to be at
stake, and its independence in question, and all America ap-
pears to declare, with one heart and one voice, a manly deter-
mination to vindicate both.
The legislature, by the late publication of instructions and
despatches, have appealed to the world ; and if the iron hand of
power has not locked up the presses of Europe in such a man-
ner that the facts cannot be communicated to mankind, the
impartial sense and the voice of human nature must be in our
favor. If perseverance in injustice should necessitate the last
appeal, whatever causes we may have to humble ourselves
before the supreme tribunal, we have none for any other senti-
ment than the pride of virtue and honest indignation against
the late conduct of France towards us.
I thank you, gentlemen, for your personal civilities to me,
and return your kind wishes for my happiness.
Your noble declaration of your readiness, with your lives and
fortunes, to support the dignity and independence of the United
States, will receive the applause of your country, and of all who
have the sentiments and feelings of men.
John Adams.
to the inhabitants op bridgeton, in the county of cum-
berland, in the state of new jersey.
1 May, 1798.
Gentlemen,
To you, who disapprove of addresses of compliment in gene-
ral, and of the interposition of constituents in the ordinary
course of national affairs, my thanks are more particularly due
for the part you have taken at this extraordinary crisis.
In preparing the project of a treaty to be proposed by Con-
gress to France, in the year 1776, fully apprised of the import-
ance of neutrality, I prescribed to myself as a rule to admit
nothing which could compromise the United States in any
ifi*
186 OFFICIAL.
future wars of Europe. In the negotiations of peace in 1782, I
saw stronger reasons than ever before in favor of that maxim.
The wise and prudent measures adopted by my predecessor,
to preserve and support a fair and impartial neutrality with the
belligerent powers of Europe, coinciding with my own opinions
and principles, more ancient than the birth of the United States,
could not but be heartily approved and supported by me during
his whole administration, and steadily pursued untU this time.
It was, however, no part of the system of my predecessor, nor
is it any article of my creed, that neutrality should be purchased
with bribes, by the sacrifice of our sovereignty and the aban-
donment of our independence, by the surrender of our moral
character, by tarnishing our honor, by violations of public faith,
or by any means humiliating to our own national pride, or dis-
graceful in the eyes of the world ; nor will I be the instrument
of procuring it on such terms.
I thank you, gentlemen, for your candid approbation and
your noble assurances of support.
John Adams.
TO THE CITIZENS OF BALTIMORE AND BALTIMORE COUNTY,
MARYLAND.
2 May, 1798.
Gentlemen,
I thank you for communicating to me this respectful addi'css.
The sense you entertain of the conduct of a foreign nation,
in threatening with destruction the freedom and independence
of the United States, and representing the citizens of America
as a divided people, is such as patriotism naturally and neces-
sarily inspires. The fate of every republic in Europe, however,
from Poland to Geneva, has given too much cause for such
thoughts and projects in our enemies, and such apprehensions
in our friends and ourselves.
Republics are always divided in opinion, concerning forms
of governments, and plans and details of administration. These
divisions are generally harmless, often salutary, and seldom
very hurtful, except when foreign nations interfere, and by their
OFFICIAL. 187
arts and agents excite and ferment them into parties and fac-
tions. Such interference and influence must be resisted and
exterminated, or it will end in America, as it did anciently in
Greece, and in our own time in Europe, in our total destruction
as a republican government and independent power.
The liberal applause you bestow on the measures pursued
by the government for the adjustment of differences and restora-
tion of harmony, your resolutions of resistance in preference to
submission to any foreign power, your confidence in the govern-
ment, your recommendation of measures of defence of the
country and protection of its commerce, and your generous
resolution to submit to the expenses and temporary inconve-
niences which may be necessary to preserve the sovereignty
and freedom of the United States, are received with much
respect.
John Adams.
to the young men of the city of philadelphia, the dis-
trict of southwark, and the northern liberties,
pennsylvania.
7 May, 1798.
Gentlemen,
Nothing of the kind could be more welcome to me than this
address from the ingenuous youth of Philadelphia, in their vir-
tuous anxiety to preserve the honor and independence of their
country.
For a long course of years, my amiable young friends, before
the birth of the oldest of you, I was called to act with your
fathers in concerting measures the most disagreeable and dan-
gerous, not from a desire of innovation, not from discontent
with the government under which we were born and bred, but
to preserve the honor of our country, and vindicate the immemo-
rial liberties of our ancestors. In pursuit of these measures, it
became, not an object of predilection and choice, but of indis-
pensable necessity to assert our independence, which, with many
difficulties and much suffering, was at length secured. I have
long flattered myself that I might be gathered to the ashes of
188 OFFICIAL.
my fathers, leaving unimpaired and unassailed the liberties so
dearly pvirchased; and that I should never be summoned a
second time to act in such scenes of anxiety, perplexity, and
danger, as war of any kind always exhibits. If my good for-
tune should not correspond with my earnest wishes, and I should
be obliged to act with you, as with your ancestors, in defence
of the honor and independence of our country, I sincerely wish
that none of you may ever have your constancy of mind and
strength of body put to so severe a trial, as to be compelled
again in yovir advanced age to the contemplation and near
prospect of any war of offence or defence.
It would neither be consistent with my character, nor yours,
on this occasion, to read lessons to gentlemen of your education,
co;iduct, and character; if, however, I might be indulged the
privilege of a father, I should with the tenderest affection
recommend to your serious and constant consideration, that
/ science and morals are the great pillars on which this country
has been raised to its present population, opulence, and prospe-
rity, and that these alone can advance, support, and preserve it.
Without wishing to damp the ardor of curiosity, or influence
the freedom of inquiry, I will hazard a prediction, that, after the
most industrious and impartial researches, the longest liver of
you all will find no principles, institutions, or systems of educa-
tion more fit, in general, to be transmitted to your posterity, than
those you have received from your ancestors.
No prospect or spectacle could excite a stronger sensibility in
my bosom than this, which now presents itself before me. I
wish you all the pure joys, the sanguine hopes, and bright pro-
spects, which are decent at your age, and that your lives may
be long, honorable, and prosperous, in the constant practice of
benevolence to men and reverence to the Divinity, in a country
persevering in liberty, and increasing in virtue, power, and glory.
The sentiments of this address, everywhere expressed in lan-
guage as chaste and modest as it is elegant and masterly, which
would do honor to the youth of any country, have raised a
monument to your fame more durable than brass and marble.
The youth of all America must exult in this early sample, at
the seat of government, of their talents, genius, and virtues.
America and the world will look to our youth as one of our
firmest bulwarks. The generous claim which you now present,
OFFICIAL. 189
of sharing in the difficulty, danger, and glory of our defence, is
to me and to your country a sure and pleasing pledge, that your
birth -rights will never be ignobly bartered or surrendered; but
that you will in your turn transmit to future generations the
fair inheritance obtained by the unconquerable spirit of your
fathers.
John Adams.
TO THE INHABITANTS AND CITIZENS OF BOSTON,
MASSACHUSETTS.
7 ]May, 1798.
Gentlemen,
I thank you for the declaration of your approbation of the
measures adopted by me, relative to our foreign relations, to
conciliate the French republic and to accommodate all existing
difference upon terms compatible with the safety, the interest,
and the dignity of the United States.
Your high and elevated opinion of, and confidence in, the
virtue, wisdom, and patriotism of the national government, and
fixed resolution to support, at the risk of your lives and fortunes,
such measures as may be determined to be necessary to pro-
mote and secure the honor and happiness of the United States,
do you honor, and are perfectly in character.
It must, however, be a very unnatural and peculiar state of
things to make it necessary or proper in you, or any other
American in your behalf, to declare to the world, what the world
ought to have known and acknowledged without hesitation, that
you are not humiliated under a colonial sense of fear, that you
are not a divided people in any point which involves the honor,
safety, and essential rights of your country, that you know your
rights, and are determined to support them.
John Adams.
190 OFFICIAL.
to the inhabitants of the county of lancaster,
pennsylvania.
8 May, 1798.
Gentlemen,
This respectful and affectionate address from the wealthy,
industrious, and independent proprietors of the county of Lan-
caster, is as honorable as it is agreeable to me, and is returned
with my hearty thanks.
The attention you have given to a demand of a preliminary
submission, acknowledging the commission of offence, requires
an observation on my part. The Constitution of the United
States makes it my duty to communicate to Congress from
time to time information of the state of the Union, and to
recommend to their consideration measures which appear to
me necessary or expedient. While in discharge of this duty, I
submit, with entire resignation, to the responsibility established
in the Constitution, I hold myself accountable to no crowned
head or Executive Directory, or other foreign power on earth,
for the communications which my duty obliges me to make ;
yet to you, my fellow-citizens, I will freely say, that in the case
alluded to, the honor done, the publicity and solemnity given to
the audience of leave to a disgraced minister, recalled in dis-
pleasure for misconduct, was a studied insult to the government
of my country.
The observations made by me were mild and moderate in a
degree far beyond what the provocation would have justified ;
and if the American people or their government could have
borne it without resentment, offered as it was in the face of all
all the world, they must have been fit to be the tributary dupes
they have since been so coolly invited to become.
As I know not where a better choice of envoys could have
been made, I thank you for your approbation of their appoint-
ment and applause of their conduct.
In return for your prayers for my health and fortitude, I offer
mine for the citizens of Lancaster in particular and the United
States in general.
John Adams.
OFFICIAL. 191
TO THE INHABITANTS OF THE COUNTY OF BURLINGTON,
NEW JERSEY.
8 May, 1798.
Gentlemen,
There is nothing in the conduct of our enemies more remark-
able than their total contempt of the people, while they pretend
to do all for the people; and of all real republican governments,
while they screen themselves under some of their names and
forms. While they are erecting military despotisms, under the
delusive names of representative democracies, they are demo-
lishing the Pope by the most machiavelian maxim of one of his
predecessors, " If the good people will be deceived, let him be
deceived."
The American people are unquestionably the best qualified
of any great nation in the world, by their character, habits, and
all other circumstances, for a real republican government ; yet
the American people are represented as in opposition, in enmity,
and on the point of hostility against the government of their
own institution and the administration of their own choice. If
this were true, what would be the consequence? Nothing
more nor less than that they are ripe for a military despotism,
under the domination of a foreign power. It is to me no won-
der that American blood boils at these ideas.
Your ardent attachment to the Constitution and government
of the United States, and complete confidence in all its depart-
ments; your frm resolution, at every hazard, to maintain, sup-
port, and defend with your lives and fortunes every measure,
which by your lawful representatives may be deemed necessary
to protect the rights, liberty, and independence of the United
States of America, wUl do you honor with all the world and
with all posterity.
John Adams.
192 OFFICIAL.
to the inhabitants of the town of hartford,
connecticut.
10 May, 1798.
Gentlemen,
Although the sentiments and conduct of the people of Con-
necticut, as expressed upon all occasions by themselves at
home, and their representatives in both houses of Congress, have'
been so unanimous and uniform in support of the government
as to render their interposition at this crisis unnecessary, yet
this address from the citizens of Hartford is not the less agree-
able to me, or deserving my gratitude,
I have never considered the issue of our late endeavors to
negotiate with the French republic as a subject either of con-
gratulation or despondency ; as, on the one hand, I should be
happy in the friendship of France upon honorable conditions,
under any government she may choose to assume ; so, on the
other, I see no cause of despondency under a continuance of
her enmity, if such is her determined disposition. Providence
may indeed intend us a favor above our wishes and a blessing
beyond our foresight in the extinction of an influence which
might soon have become more fatal than war.
If the designs of foreign hostility and the views of domestic
treachery are now fully disclosed ; if the moderation, dignity,
and wisdom of government have awed into silence the clamors
of faction, and palsied the thousand tongues of calumny ; if the
spirit of independent freemen is again awakened, and its force
is combined, I agree with you that it will be irresistible.
I hesitate not to express a confidence equal to yours in the
collected firmness and wisdom which the Southern States have
ever displayed on the approach of danger; nor can I doubt
that they will join with all their fellow-citizens, with equal
spirit, to crush every attempt at disorganization, disunion, and
anarchy. The vast extent of their settlements, and greater dis-
tance from the centre of intelligence, may require more time to
mature their judgment, and expose them to more deceptions by
misrepresentation ; but in the end, their sensations, reflections,
and decisions, are purely American.
OFFICIAL. 193
Your confidence in the legislature and administration has
been perfectly well known from the commencement of the go-
vernment, and has ever done it honor.
John Adams.
TO THE INHABITANTS OF THE BOROUGH OF HARRISBURGH,
PENNSYLVANIA.
12 May, 1798.
Gentlemen,
Your address has been presented to me by Mr. Hartley, Mr.
Sitgreaves, and Mr. Hanna, three of your representatives in
Congress.
T know not which to admire most, the conciseness, the energy,
the elegance, or profound wisdom of this excellent address.
Ideas of reformation and schemes for meliorating the condi-
tion of humanity should not be discouraged, when proposed
with reason and pursued with moderation ; but the rage for
innovation, which destroys every thing because it is established,
and introduces absurdities the most monstrous, merely because
they are new, was never carried to such a pitch of madness
in any age of the world as in this latter end of the boasted
eighteenth century, and never produced effects so horrible upon
sufiering humanity-
Among all the appearances portentous of evil, there is none
more incomprehensible than the professions of republicanism
among those who place not a sense of justice, morality, or piety,
among the ornaments of their nature and the blessings of society.
As nothing is more certain and demonstrable than that free
republicanism cannot exist without these ornaments and bless-
ings, the tendency of the times is rapid towards a restoration
of the petty military despotisms of the feudal anarchy, and by
their means a return to the savage state of barbarous life.
Hov^ can the press prevent this, when all the presses of a
nation, and indeed of many nations at once, are subject to an
imprimatur, by a veto upon pain of conflagration, banishment,
or confiscation ?
That America may have the glory of arresting this torrent of
vol,. IX. 1" M
194 OFFICIAL.
error, vice, and imposture, is my fervent wish ; and if senti-
ments as great as those from Harrisburgh, should be found
universally to prevail, as I doubt not they will, my hopes will
be as sanguine as my wishes.
John Adams.
TO THE young MEN OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.
22 May, 1798.
Gentlemen,
It is impossible for you to enter your own Faneuil Hall, or
to throw your eyes on the variegated mountains and elegant
islands around you, without recollecting the principles and
actions of your fathers, and feeling what is due to their example.
One of their first principles was to unite in themselves the cha-
racter of citizens and soldiers, and especially to preserve the
latter always subordinate to the former.
With much solicitude for your w^elfare and that of your
posterity, I take the freedom to say that this country never
appeared to me to be in greater danger than at this moment,
from within or without, never more urgently excited to assume
the functions of soldiers.
The state of the world is such, the situation of all the nations
of Europe with which we have relation is so critical, that vicis-
situdes must be expected, from whose deleterious influences
nothing but arms and energy can protect us. To arms, then,
my young friends, — to arms, especially by sea, to be used as
the laws shall direct, let us resort. For safety against dangers,
which we now see and feel, cannot be averted by truth, reason,
or justice.
Nothing in the earlier part of my public life animated me
more than the countenances of the children and youth of the
town of Boston ; and nothing at this hour gives me so much
pleasure as the masculine temper and talents displayed by the
youth of America in every part of it.
I ought not to forget the worst enemy we have, that obloquy,
which, you have observed, is the worst enemy to virtue and the
best friend to vice ; it strives to destroy all distinction between
OFFICIAL. 195
right and wrong ; it leads to divisions, sedition, civil war, and
military despotism. I need say no more.
John Abams.
TO THE GRAND JURY FOR THE COUNTY OF PLYMOUTH,
MASSACHUSETTS.
28 May, 1798.
Gentlemen,
I thank you for your address, which has been transmitted to
me according to your request by the Chief Justice of the State.
Difficult as it is to believe that a nation, struggling or pre-
tending to struggle for liberty and independence, should attempt
to invade or impair those blessings, where they are quietly and
fully enjoyed ; yet thus it is that the United States of America
are not the only example of it.
While occupied in your peaceful employments, you have seen
the fruits of your industry plundered by professed friends, your
tranquillity has been disturbed by incessant appeals to the pas-
sions and prejudices of the people by designing men, and by
audacious attempts to separate the people froin the govern-
ment ; and there is not a village in the United States, perhaps,
which cannot testify to similar abuses.
Liberty, independence, national honor, social order, and pub-
lic safety, appear to you to be in danger ; your acknowledg-
ments to me, therefore, are the more obliging and encouraging.
Your prayers for my preservation, and your pledge that in
any arduous issue to which the arts or arms of successful
violence may compel us, you will, as becomes faithful citizens
of this happy country, come forward as one man, in defence of
all that is dear to us, are to me as affecting, as to the public
they ought to be satisfactory sentiments — the more affecting
to me, as they come from the most ancient settlement in the
northern part of the continent, held in peculiar veneration by
me at all times.
John Adams.
196 OFFICIAL.
TO THE SOLDIER CITIZENS OF NEW JERSEY.
31 May, 1798.
Gentlemen,
Among all the numerous addresses which have been presented
to me in the present critical situation of our nation, there has
been none which has done me more honor, none animated with
a more glowing love of our country, or expressive of sentiments
more determined and magnanimous. The submission you
avow to the civil authority, an indispensable principle in the
character of warriors in a free government, at the same moment
when you make a solemn proffer of your lives and fortunes in
the service of your country, is highly honorable to your disposi-
tions as citizens and soldiers, and proves you perfectly qualified
for the duties of both characters.
Officers and soldiers of New Jersey have as little occasion
as they have disposition to boast. Their country has long
boasted of their ardent zeal in the cause of freedom, and their
invincible intrepidity in the day of battle.
Your voice of confidence and satisfaction, of firmness and
determination to support the laws and Constitution of the
United States, has a charm in it irresistible to the feelings of
every American bosom ; but when, in the presence of the God
of armies and in firm reliance on his protection, you solemnly
pledge your lives and fortunes, and your sacred honor, you
have recorded words which ought to be indelibly imprinted on
the memory of every American youth. With these sentiments
in the hearts and this language in the mouths of Americans in
general, the greatest nation may menace at its pleasure, and the
degraded and the deluded characters may tremble, lest they
should be condemned to the severest punishment an American
can suffer — that of being conveyed in safety within the lines
of an invading enemy.
John Adams.
'official. 197
TO THE INHABITANTS OF THE TOWN OF BRAINTREE,
MASSACHUSETTS.
2 June, 1798.
Gentlemen,
This kind address from the inhabitants of a division of the
ancient and venerable town of Braintree, which has always
been my home, is very obliging to me.
The tongues and pens of slander, instruments with which
our enemies expect to subdue our country, I flatter myself have
never made impressions on you, my ancient townsmen, to whom
I have been so familiarly known from my infancy. A signal
interposition of Providence has for once detected frauds and
calumnies, which, from the inexecution of the laws and the
indifference of the people were too long permitted to prevail.^
I am happy to see that your minds are deeply impressed with
the danger of the present situation of our country, and that your
resolutions to assert and defend your rights, are as judicious and
determined as I have always known them to be upon former
occasions.
I wish you every prosperity and felicity which you can wisely
wish for yourselves.
John Adams.
to the young men of the city of new york.
Gentlemen,
I received this becoming, amiable, and judicious address from
the young men of the city of New York with great pleasure.
The situation in which nature has placed your State, its
' " At the return of harmony in Congress, the heart of every true friend to
America exults ; the people, who in great numbers before, alarmingly separated
in affection and confidence from their own government, and rendered jealous
of the first characters of their own election, convinced of the snares spread for
their country by foreign intrigue, are now crowding to its standard, and conse-
crating their fortunes and lives for its defence. So signal a providence for the
detection of fraud, and the coalition of a people divided and consequently sink-
ing into inevitable destruction, is perhaps a novelty in the annals of nations." —
Extract from the Braintree Address.
17*
198 OFFICIAL.
numerous advantages, and its population so rapidly increasing',
render it of great importance to the union of the nation, that
its youth should be possessed of good principles and faithful
dispositions. The specimen you have given in this address
could not be more satisfactory.
I assure you, my young friends, that the satisfaction with my
conduct, which has been expressed by the rising generation, has
been one of the highest gratifications I ever received, because,
if I have not been deceived in my own motives, I can sincerely
say, that their happiness and that of their posterity, more than
my own or that of my contemporaries, has been the object of
the studies and labors of my life.
Your attachment to France was in common with Americans
in general. The enthusiasm for liberty, which contributed to
excite it, was in sympathy with great part of the people of
Europe. The causes which produced that great event, were so
extensive through the European world, and so long established,
that it must appear a vast scheme of Providence, progressing
to its end, incomprehensible to the vievi^s, designs, hopes, and
fears of individuals or nations, kings or princes, philosophers or
statesmen. It would be weak to ascribe the glory of it, or im-
pute the blame to any individual or any nation ; it would be
equally absurd for any individual or nation to pretend to wisdom
or power equal to the mighty task of arresting its progress or
diverting its course. May the human race in general and the
French nation in particular derive ultimately from it an amelio-
ration of their condition, in the extension of liberty, civil and
religious, in increased virtue, wisdom, and humanity! For
myself, however, I confess, I see not how, nor when, nor where.
In the mean time, these incomprehensible speculations ought
not to influence our conduct in any degree. It is our duty to
judge, by the standard of truth, integrity, and conscience, of what
is right and wrong, to contend for our own rights, and to fight
for our own altars and firesides, as much as at any former
period of our lives. In your own beautiful and pathetic lan-
guage, the same enthusiasm ought now to unite us more closely
in the defence of our country, and inspire us with a spirit of
resistance against the efforts of that republic to destroy our
independence. If my enthusiasm is not more extravagant than
yours has ever been, our independence will be one essential
OFFICIAL. 199
instrument for reclaiming the fermented world, and bringing
good out of the mass of evil.
The respect you acknowledge to your parents, is one of the
best of symptoms. The ties of father, son, and brother, the sacred
bands of marriage, without which those connections would be
no longer dear and venerable, call on you and all your youth to
beware of contaminating your country with the foul abomina-
tions of the French revolution.
John Adams.
TO THE INHABITANTS OF QUINCY, MASSACHUSETTS.
Gentlemen,
Next to the approbation of a good conscience, there is nothing,
perhaps, which gives us more pleasure than the praise of those
we love most, and who know us the most intimately.
I could not receive your address — in which I read with
pleasure inexpressible the names of clergy and laity, officers
and soldiers, magistrates and citizens of every denomination,
among whom were the most aged, whose countenances I had
respected, my school-fellows and the companions of my child-
hood, whom I had loved from the cradle, — without the liveliest
emotions of gratitude and affection.
With you, my kind neighbors, I have ever lived in habits of
freedom, friendship, and familiarity. We have always agreed
very well in principles and opinions, and well knowing your
love of your country and ardor in its defence, your explicit
declaration upon this occasion, though unexpected, is no sur-
prise to me. Accept of the best wishes of a sincere and faithful
friend for a continuance of harmony among you, and for the
prosperity of all your interests.
John Adams.
200 OFFICIAL.
TO THE INHABITANTS OF THE TOWN OF CAMBRIDGE,
MASSACHUSETTS.
2 June, 1798.
Gentlemen,
I thank you for this address, subscribed by so large a number
of respectable names, and for the expression of your satisfaction
in my administration.
Difficulties were the inheritance to which I was born, and a
double portion has been allotted to me. I have hitherto found
in my integrity an impenetrable shield, and I trust it will con-
tinue to preserve me.
I pity the towns, which, under the guidance of rash or design-
ing men, assembled without the necessary information, and
passed resolutions which have exposed them to censure.
I receive and return with pleasure your congratulations on
the present appearances of national union, and thank you for
your assurances of support.
John Adams.
TO THE LEGISLATURE OF MASSACHUSETTS.
15 June, 1798.
Gentlemen,
An afTectionate and respectful address from your two honor-
able houses has been presented to me, according to your request,
by your senators and representatives in Congress.
The anxiety, the ancient and constant habit of the people of
Massachusetts and their legislature, to take an early and decided
part in whatever relates to the safety and welfare of their coun-
try, as well as their ardor, activity, valor, and ability in its defence
by sea and land, are well known, and ought to be acknowledged
by all the world.
The first forty years of my life were passed in my native
Massachusetts, in a course of education and professional career,
which led me to a very general acquaintance in every part of
OFFICIAL. 201
that State. If, with youv opportunities and pressing motives for
observation and experience, you can pronounce my services
successful, and administration virtuous, and the people of fifteen
other States could concur with you in that opinion, my reward
would be complete, and my most ardent wishes gratified.
If the object of France, in her revolution, ever was liberty, it
was a liberty very ill defined and never understood. She now
aims at dominion such as never has before prevailed in Europe.
If with the principles, maxims, and systems of her present
leaders she is to become the model and arbiter of nations, the
liberties of the world will be in danger. Nevertheless, the
citizens of Massachusetts, who were first to defend, will be
among the last to resign the rights of our national sovereignty.
You have great reason to expect in this all-important conflict
the ready and zealous cooperation of the free and enlightened
people of America, and with humble confidence to rely on the
God of our fathers for protection and success.
With you I fully agree, that a people, by whom the blessings
of civil and religious liberty are enjoyed and duly appreciated,
will never surrender them but with their lives. The patriotism
and the energies of your constituents, united with those of the
people of the other States, are a sure pledge that the charter of
your civil and religious liberties, sealed by the blood of Ameri-
cans, will never be violated by the sacrilegious hand of foreign
power.
The solemn pledge of yourselves, to support every measure
which the government of the United States at this momentous
period may see fit to adopt to protect the commerce and preserve
the independence of our country, must afford an important en-
couragement to the national government, and contribute greatly
to the union of the people throughout all the States.
John Adams,
202 OFFICIAL.
TO THE INHABITANTS OF ARLINGTON AND SANDGATE, VERMONT.
25 June, 1798.
Gentlemen,
I thank you for this address, which has been presented to me
by Mr. Chipman, one of your senators in Congress.
Sentiments like yours, which have been entertained for years,
it would be at this time inexcusable not to express. If you
have long seen foreign influence prevailing and endangering the
peace and independence of our country, so have I. If you have
long seen, with painful sensations, the exertions of dangerous
and restless men, misleading the understandings of our well-
meaning citizens, and prompting them to such measures as
would sink the glory of our country and prostrate her liberties
at the feet of France, so also have I.
I have seen in the conduct of the French nation, for the last
twelve years, a repetition of their character displayed under
Louis the fourteenth, and little more, excepting the extrava-
gances, which have been intermixed with it, of the wildest
philosophy which was ever professed in this world, since the
building of Babel, and the fables of the giants, who, by piling
mountains on mountains, invaded the skies. If the spell is
broken, let human nature exult and rejoice. The veil may be
removed from the eyes of many, but I fear, not of all. The
snare is not yet entirely broken, and we are not yet escaped.
If you have no attachments or exclusive friendship for any
foreign nation, you possess the genuine character of true Ame-
ricans.
The pledge of yourselves and dearest enjoyments, to support
the measures of government, shows that your ideas are adequate
to the national dignity, and that you are worthy to enjoy its
independence and sovereignty.
Your prayers for my life and usefulness are too affecting to
me to be enlarged upon.
John Adams.
OFFICIAL. 203
TO THE LEGISLATURE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.
29 June, 1798.
Gentlemen,
My most respectful and afFectionate thanks are due to your
two honorable houses for an address, transmitted to me by your
excellent governor, and presented to me by your representatives
in Congress.
The American nation appears to me, as it does to you, on
the point of being drawn into the vortex of European war.
Your entire satisfaction in the administration of the federal
government, and in the perseverance which has marked its
endeavors to adjust our disputes with France, is very precious
to me. Distressing and alarming as the political situation of
this country is, I am conscious that no measures, on my part,
have been wanting, that could have honorably rendered it other-
wise. The indignities which have been so repeatedly offered
to our ambassadors, the greatest of which is the last unexampled
insult, in choosing out one of the three, and discarding the other
two, the wrongs and injuries to our commerce by French depre-
dations, the legal declaration, in effect, of hostilities against all
our commerce, and the apparent disposition of the government
of France, seem to render further negotiation not only nugatory,
but disgraceful and ruinous. You may tax the French govern-
ment with ingratitude with much more justice than yourselves.
The increasing union among the people and their legislatures
is as encouraging as it is agreeable. The precept, "divide and
conquer," was never exemplified in the eyes of mankind in so
striking and remarkable a manner as of late in Europe. Every
old republic has fallen before it. If America has not spirit and
sense enough to learn wisdom from the examples of so many
republican catastrophes passing in review before her eyes, she
deserves to suffer, and most certainly will fall. I am happy to
assure you that, as far as my information extends, the opposi-
tion to the federal government in all the other States, as well as
in New Hampshire, is too small to merit the name of division.
It is a difference of sentiment on public measures, not an aliena-
tion of affection to their country.
204 OFFICIAL.
The war-worn soldiers and the brave and hardy sons of New
Hampshire, second to none in skill, enterprize, or courage in
war, will never surrender the independence, or consent to the
dishonor of their country.
I return my warmest wishes for your health and happiness.
John Adams.
TO THE STUDENTS OF DICKINSON COLLEGE, PENNSYLVANIA.
Gentlemen,
I have received from the hand of one of your senators in
Congress, Mr. Bingham, your public and explicit declaration of
your sentiments and resolutions at this important crisis, in an
excellent address.
Although it ought not to be supposed that young gentlemen
of your standing should be deeply versed in political disquisi-
tions, because your time has been occupied in the pursuit of
the elements of science and literature in general, yet the feelings
of nature are a sure guide in circumstances like the present. I
need not, however, make this apology for you. Few addresses,
if any, have appeared more correct in principle, better arranged
and digested, more decent and moderate, better reasoned and
supported, or more full, explicit, and determined.
Since the date of your address, a fresh instance of the present
spirit of a nation, or its government, whom you have been taught
to call your friends, has been made public. Two of your envoys
have been ordered out of the republic. Why ? Answer this for
yourselves, my young friends. A third has been permitted or
compelled to remain. "Why ? To treat of loans, as preliminary
to an audience, as the French government understands it; to
wait for further orders, as your envoy conceives. Has any
sovereign of Europe ever dictated to your country the person
she should send as ambassador ? Did the monarchy of France,
or any other country, ever assume such a dictatorial power over
the sovereignty of your country ? Is the republic of the United
States of America a fief of the repablic of France ? It is a
question, whether even an equitable treaty, under such circum-
stances of indecency, insolence, and tyranny, ought ever to be
OFFICIAL. 205
ratified by an independent nation. There is, however, no pro-
bability of any treaty, to bring this question to a decision.
If there are any who still plead the cause of France, and
attempt to paralyse the efforts of your government, I agree with
you, they ought to be esteemed our greatest enemies. I hope
that none of you, but such as feel a natural genius and disposi-
tion to martial exercise and exertions, will ever be called from
the pleasing walks of science to repel any attack upon your
rights, liberties, and independence.
When you look up to me with confidence as the patron of
science, liberty, and religion, you melt my heart. These are the
choicest blessings of humanity ; they have an inseparable union.
Without their joint influence no society can be great, flourish-
ing, or happy.
While I ardently pray that the American republic may always
rise superior to her enemies, and transmit the purest principles
of liberty to the latest ages, 1 beseech Heaven to bestow its
choicest blessings on the governors and students of your college,
and all other seminaries of learning in America.
John Adams.
to the students of new jersey college.
Gentlemen,
I thank you for your well-judged and well-penned address,
which has been presented to me by one of your senators in
Congress, from New Jersey, Mr. Stockton.
To a high-spirited youth, possessed of that self-respect and
self-esteem which is inseparable from conscious innocence and
rectitude; whose bodies are not enervated by irregularities of
life ; whose minds are not weakened by dissipation or habits of
luxury ; whose natural sentiments are improved and fortified
by classical studies ; the aggressions of a foreign power must be
disgusting and odious. On these facts alone I could answer
for the youth of Nassau, that they will glory in defending the
independence of their fathers.
The honor of your country you cannot estimate too highly.
Reputation is of as much importance to nations, in proportion,
as to individuals. Honor is a higher interest than reputation.
VOL. IX. '*
206 OFFICIAL.
The man or the nation without attachment to reputation or
honor, is undone. What is animal life, or national existence,
without either ?
The regret with which you view the encroachments of foreign
nations, the impatience with which you contemplate their law-
less depredations, are perfectly natural, and do honor to your
characters.
If regrets would avert the necessity of military operations, it
would be well to indulge them ; but if the entire prosperity of
a State depends upon the discipline of its armies, a maxim
much respected by your fathers, you may hereafter be convinced
that the cause of your country and of mankind may be promoted
by means, which, from love to your country and a fear to set at
defiance the laws of nature, you now see cause to regret.
The flame of enthusiasm which you in common with your
fathers caught at the French revolution, could have been en-
kindled only by the innocence of your hearts and the purity of
your intentions. Let me, however, my amiable and accom-
plished young friends, entreat you to study the history of that
revolution, the history of France during the periods of the League
and the Fronde, and the history of England from 1640 to 1660.
In these studies you may perhaps find a solution of your disap-
pointment in your hopes that the spirit which created, would
conduct the revolution. You may find that the good intended
by fair characters from the beginning, was defeated by Borgias
and Catilines; that these fair characters themselves were inex-
perienced in freedom, and had very little reading in the science
of government; that they were altogether inadequate to the
cause they embraced, and the enterprise in which they embarked.
You may find that the moral principles, sanctified and sanctioned
by religion, are the only bond of union, the only ground of con-
fidence of the people in one another, of the people in the govern-
ment, and the government in the people. Avarice, ambition,
and pleasure, can never be the foundations of reformations or
revolutions for the better. These passions have dictated the
aim at universal domination, trampled on the rights of neutral-
ity, despised the faith of solemn compacts, insulted ambassadors,
and rejected offers of friendship.
It is to me a flattering idea that you place any of your hopes
of political security in me ; mine are placed in your fathers
OFFICIAL. 207
and you, and my advice to both is to place your confidence,
under the favor of Heaven, in yourselves.
Your approbation of the conduct of government, and con-
fidence in its authorities, are very acceptable. If the choice of
the people will not defend their rights, who will? To me there
appears no means of averting the storm ; and, in my opinion,
we must all be ready to dedicate ourselves to fatigues and
dangers.
John Adams.
TO THE governor AND THE LEGISLATURE OF CONNECTICUT.
Gentlemen,
An address so affectionate and respectful carries with it a
dignity and authority, which is the more honorable to me as it
comes from a legislature, which, although not in the habit of
interfering in the administration of the general government, has
exhibited a uniform affection for the national Constitution, and
an undeviating respect to the laws and constituted author-
ities.
There can never be a time when it will be more necessary for
the nation to express the sentiments by which it is animated,
than when it is deeply injured by lawless aggressions, and in-
sulted by imperious claims of a foreign power, professing to
confide in our disunion, and boasting of the means of severing
the affections of our citizens from the government of their
choice.
Your approbation of the conduct and measures of government,
and assurances of a firm and hearty support, are of great and
high importance, and demand my most respectful and grateful
acknowledgments.
With you I cherish our independence, revere the names, the
virtues, and the sufferings of our ancestors, and admire the
resolution, that the inestimable gift of civil and religious freedom
shall never be impaired in our hands, and that no sacrifice of
blood or treasure shall be esteemed too dear to transmit the
precious inheritance to posterity.
I return my most fervent wishes for your personal happiness,
208 OFFICIAL.
and the peace and the honor of the nation, committing all, with
all their interests, to the God of our fathers.
John Adams.
TO THE CINCINNATI OF RHODE ISLAND.
Gentlemen,
I thank you for your respectful remembrance of me on the
birth-day of our United States. The clear conviction you
acknowledge of the firm, patriotic, and enlightened policy pur-
sued by the chief magistrate of the United States, after a review
of the progress of his administration, will encourage his heart
and strengthen his hands. Our country, supported by a great
and respectable majority of its inhabitants, will not only be
protected from a degrading submission to national insults, but
be placed, I trust, on that point of elevation, where, by her
courage and virtues, she is entitled to stand. The best " diplo-
matic skill" is honesty, and whenever the nation we complain
of shall have recourse to that, she may depend upon an oppor-
tunity to boast of the success of her address — till then, she will
employ "her finesse in vain. On the day you resolved to live
and die free, and declared yourselves ready to rally round the
standard of your country, headed by that illustrious chief, who,
at a time that proved the patriot and the hero, led you to vic-
tory— I was employed in the best of measures in my power to
obtain a gratification of your wishes, which I am not without
hopes may prove successful. In a country like ours, every
sacrifice ought to be considered as nothing, when put in com-
petition with the rights of a free and sovereign nation ; and I
trust that, by the blessing of Heaven, and the valor of our
citizens, under their ancient and glorious leader, you will be
able to transmit your fairest inheritance to posterity.
John Adams.
OFFICIAL. 209
TO THE INHABITANTS OF BEDHAM AND OTHER TOWNS IN THE
COUNTY OF NORFOLK, MASSACHUSETTS.
14 July, 1798.
Gextlemen,
I thank you for a friendly address, presented to me by your
representative in Congress, Mr. Otis.
No faithful and intelligent American could pass the 4th of
July this year, without strong sensations and deep reflections,
excited by the perfidy, insolence, and hostilities of France.
The ideas of never-ending repose in America were as visionary
as the projects of universal and perpetual peace, which some
ingenious and benevolent writers have amused themselves in
composing.
We have too much intercourse with ambitious, enterprising,
and warlike nations, and our commerce is of too much import-
ance in their conflicts, to leave us a hope of remaining always
neutral. Although our government has exhausted all the re-
sources of its policy in endeavors to avoid engaging in the
present uproar, neither the faith, justice, or gratitude of France
would suffer it to succeed.
I know very well that political misinformation has been pecu-
liarly active in the scene which you and I inhabit, and that too
many have believed that France, though crushed under the iron
hand of a military despotism, enjoyed liberty; that the inor-
dinate ambition of her rulers for dominion was infused by a
generous zeal to set oppressed nations free ; that these nations
were emancipated by being subdued, and though they lost their
independence, they were gainers by some unknown equivalent
gratuitously conferred by their conquerors.
If impostures so gross have had too much success, America
is of all the people of the world the most excusable, for many
particular reasons, for their credulity. The people of a great
portion of Europe have been more fatally deceived ; even the
people of England, with all their national antipathies and under
all the energies of their government, have been equally misin-
formed, and appear to be now more affected with remorse. The
sobriety and steadiness of the American character will not safttvr
18* N
210 OFFICIAL.
more discredit than other nations, and we have certainly apolo-
gies to make, peculiar to ourselves.
That all Americans by birth, except perhaps a very few aban-
doned characters, have always preserved a superior affection for
their own country, I am very confident ; that we have thought
too well of France, and France too meanly of us, I have been
an eye and ear witness for twenty years. These errors on both
sides must be corrected. She will soon learn that we will bear
no yoke, that we will pay no tribute.
For delaying counsels, the Constitution has not made me
responsible ; but while I am entrusted with my present powers,
and bound by my present obligations, you shall see no more
delusive negotiations. The safe keeping of American inde-
pendence is in the energy of its spirit and resources. In my
opinion, as well as yours, there is no alternative between war
and submission to the executive of France. If your fathers had
not felt sentiments like these, they would have been " hewers of
wood " to one foreign nation ; and if you did not feel them,
your posterity would be " drawers of water " to another.
John Adams.
to the inhabitants of concord, massachusetts.
Gentlemen,
I thank you for this address. Your encomium on the execu-
tive authority of the national government, is in a degree highly
flattering.
As I have ever wished to avoid, as far as prudence and neces-
sity would permit, every concealment from my fellow-citizens
of my real sentiments in matters of importance, I will venture
to ask you whether it is consistent with the peace we have
made, the friendship we have stipulated, or even with civility,
to express a marked resentment to a foreign power who is at
war with another, whose ill will we experience every day, and
who will, very probably, in a few weeks be acknowledged an
enemy in the sense of the law of nations. A power, too,
which invariably acknowledged us to be a nation for fifteen
years ; a power that has never had the insolence to reject
OFFICIAL. 211
your ambassadors ; a power that at present convoys your trade
and their own at the same time. Immortal hatred, inextinguish-
able animosity, is neither philosophy, true religion, nor good
policy. Our ancient maxim was, " Enemies in war, in peace
friends."
If Concord drank the first blood of martyred freemen. Con-
cord should be the first to forget the injury, when it is no longer
useful to remember it. Some of you, as well as myself, remem-
ber the war of 1755 as well as that of 1775. War always has
its horrors, and civil wars the worst.
If the contest you allude to was dubious, it was from extrin-
sic causes ; it was from partial, enthusiastic, and habitual attach-
ment to a foreign country — not from any question of a party
of strength. It is highly useful to reflect — fifty thousand men
upon paper, and thirty thousand men in fact, was the highest
number Britain ever had in arms in this country — compute the
tonnage of ships necessary and actually employed to transport
these troops across the Atlantic. What were thirty thousand
men to the United States of America in 1775 ? What would
sixty thousand be now in 1798?
Let not fond attachments, enthusiastic devotion to another
power, paralyze the nerves of our citizens a second time, and all
the ships in Europe that can be spared, oflicered, and manned,
will not be sufficient to bring to this country an army capable
of any long contest.
Your compliments to me are far beyond my merits. Your
confidence in the government, and determination to support it,
are greatly to your honor.
John Adams.
TO THE STUDENTS OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY, IN MASSACHUSETTS.
Gentlemen,
The companions, studies, and amusements of my youth, un-
der the auspices of our alma mater, whom I shall ever hold in
the highest veneration and affection, came fresh to my remem-
brance on receiving your address.^
1 Of the committee which presented this address, William EUery Channing
was the chairman.
212 OFFICIAL.
The maxims of life and the elements of literature, which have
ever been inculcated in that ancient seat of education, could
produce no other sentiments, in a juncture like this, than such as
you have condensed into a form so concise, with so much accu-
racy, perspicuity, and beauty.
Removed from the scenes of intemperate pleasures, occupied
with books, which impress the purest principles, and directed
by governors, tutors, and professors, famous for science as well
as eminent in wisdom, the studious youth of this country, in all
our universities, could not fail to be animated with the intrepid
spirit of their ancestors. Very few examples of degenerate
characters are ever seen issuing from any of those seminaries.
It is impossible that young gentlemen of your habits can look
forward with pleasure to a long career of life, in a degraded
country, in society with disgraced associates. Your first care
should be to preserve the stage from reproach, and your com-
panions in the drama from dishonor.
But if it were possible to suppose you indifferent to shame,
what security can you have for the property you may acquire,
or for the life of vegetation you must lead ? What is to be the
situation of the future divine, lawyer, or physician? the mer-
chant or navigator? the cultivator or proprietor?
Your youthful blood has boiled, and it ought to boil. You
need not, however, be discouraged. If your cause should re-
quire defence in arms, your country will have armies and navies
in which you may secure your own honor, and advance the
power, prosperity, and glory of your contemporaries and poste-
rity.
John Adams.
TO THE freemasons OF THE STATE OF MARYLAND.
Gentlemex,
I thank you for this generous and noble address.
The zeal you display to vindicate your society from the im-
putations and suspicions of being "inimical to regular govern-
ment and divine religion," is greatly to your honor. It has been
an opinion of many considerate men, as long as I can remember,
that your society might, in some time or other, be made an
OFFICIAL. 213
instrument of danger and disorder to the world. Its ancient
existence and universal prevalence are good proofs that it has
not heretofore been applied to mischievous purposes ; and in
this country I presume that no one has attempted to employ it
for purposes foreign from its original institution. But in an
age and in countries where morality is, by such numbers, con-
sidered as mere convenience, and religion a lie, you are better
judges than I am, whether ill uses have been or may be made
of Masonry.
Your appeal to my own breast, and your declaration that I
shall there find your sentiments, I consider as a high compli-
ment; and feel a pride in perceiving and declaring that the
opinions, principles, and feelings expressed are conformable to
my own. With you I fear that no hope remains but in prepa-
ration for the worst that may ensue.
Persevere, gentlemen, in revering the Constitution which
secures your liberties, in loving your country, in practising
the social as well as the moral duties, in presenting your lives,
with those of your fellow-citizens, a barrier to defend your in-
dependence, and may the architect all-powerful surround you
with walls impregnable, and receive you, finally (your country
happy, prosperous, and glorious), to mansions eternal in the
Heavens !
With heart-felt satisfaction, I reciprocate your most sincere
congratulations on an occasion the most interesting to Ameri-
cans. No light or trivial cause would have given you the oppor-
tunity of beholding your Washington again relinquishing the
tranquil scenes in delicious shades. To complete the character
of French philosophy and French policy, at the end of the
eighteenth century, it seemed to be necessary to combat this
patriot and hero.
John Adams.
TO THE INHABITANTS OF AVASHINGTON COUNTY, MARYLAND.
Gentlemen,
Your address has been presented to me by your representa-
tive in Congress, IVIr. Baer.
When you say that the government of France is congenial
214 OFFICIAL.
to your own, I pray you, gentlemen, to reconsider the subject.
The Constitution, the administration, the laws, and their inter-
pretation in France, are as essentially different from ours as
the ancient monarchy. If we may believe travellers returned
from that country, or their own committees, the pomp and mag-
nificence, the profusion of expense, the proud usurpation, the
domineering inequality at present in that country, as well as
the prostitution of morals and depravation of maimers, exceed
ail that ever was seen under the old monarchy, and form the
most perfect contrast to your own in all those respects, I shall
meet with sincerity any honorable overtures of that nation, but
I shall make no more overtures.
John Abams.
to the inhabitants of the county of middlesex,
virginia.
Gentlemen,
I thank you for this address, presented to me by your repre-
sentative in Congress, Mr. New.
The principle of neutrality has indeed been maintained on
the part of the United States with inviolable faith, notwith-
standing every embarrassment and provocation, both of injury
and insult, until we have been forced out of it by an actual
war made upon us, though not manfully declared.
For reasons that are obvious to all the world, you may easily
imagine, that every manifestation of candor towards me from
any part of Virginia must be peculiarly agreeable. The hand-
some expressions of your approbation deserve my thanks.
Every thing has been done short of a resignation of our inde-
pendence. A resignation of our independence I I blush to
write the words ; there would be as much sense in speaking of
a resignation of the independence of France, or Germany, or
Russia. We are a nation as inuch established as any of them,
and as able to maintain our sovereignty, absolute and unlimited
by sea and land, as any of them.
It is too much to expect that all party divisions will be done
away a*s long as there are rival States and rival individuals ; all
OFFICIAL. 215
we can reasonably hope is, and this we may confidently expect,
that no State or individual, to gratify its ambition, will enlist
under foreign banners.
John Adams.
to the committee composed of a deputation from each
militia company of the forty-eighth regiment, in the
county of botetourt, virginia.
Gentlemen,
A copy of your unanimous resolutions together with an ad-
dress, signed by your chairman, has been presented to me by
one of your representatives in Congress, Mr. Evans.
The confidence of the people of Virginia, or any such respect-
able portion of them, is peculiarly agreeable to me, as it evinces
a tendency to a restoration of that harmony and union, which 1
well remember to have once existed, and which was so auspi-
cious to the American cause, but which has been apparently
interrupted since the commencement of the federal government.
It is scarcely possible that I should ever read a sentence more
delightful to my heart than those words, " We admire the con-
sistency of your character, and are pleased to see the same
firmness, integrity, and patriotism, at the present day, so emi-
nently displayed in the great crisis of the American revolution."
John Adams.
TO the inhabitants OF THE TOWN OF CINCINNATI AND ITS
vicinity, in the north-western territory.
11 August, 1798.
Gentlemen,
I have received and read with much pleasure your unanimous
address of the 29th of June. I agree with you that, in the ordi-
nary course of affairs, interpositions of popular meetings, to
overawe those to whom the management of public affairs are
confided, will seldom be warranted by discretion, or found com-
216 OFFICIAL.
patible with the good order of society ; but, at a period like this,
there is no method more infallible to determine the question,
whether the people are or are not united. Upon no occasion
in the history of America has this mode of discovering and ascer-
taining the public opinion been so universally resorted to. And
it may be asserted with confidence, that at no period of the
existence of the United States have evidences of the unanimity
of the people been given, so decided as on the present question
with France.
The people of this country, the most remote from the seat of
government and centre of information, as well as those in its
neighborhood, have at length discovered that they are Ameri-
cans, and feelingly alive to the injuries committed against their
country, and to the indignities offered to their government.
Upon ourselves only we ought to depend for safety and defence.
This maxim, however, by no means forbids us to avail ourselves
of the advantages of prudent and well guarded concert with
others exposed to common dangers. Animated with sentiments
like yours, our country is able to defend itself against any ene-
mies that may rise up against it.
Nothing can be more flattering to me than your assurances
of confidence in this perilous hour ; and nothing could mortify
me so much as that you should ever have reason to believe that
your confidence has been misplaced. In return for your prayers
for my personal happiness, I sincerely offer mine for the pros-
perity of the north-western territory, in common with all the
United States.
John Adams.
to the inhabitants of harrison county, virginia.
13 August, 1798.
' ^
Gentlemen,
I have received with great pleasure your address from your
committee. The attachment you profess to our government,
calculated as it is to insure liberty and happiness to its citizens,
is commendable. Your declaration, in plain and undisguised
language, that the measures which have been taken to promote
OFFICIAL. 217
a good understanding, peace, and harmony between this coun-
try and France, are becoming my character and deserving your
confidence, is a great encouragement to me. With you I see
with infinite satisfaction, that the alarming prospect of a war,
Avhich is seen to be just and necessary, has silenced all essen-
tial differences of opinions, and that a union of sentiment
appears to prevail very generally throughout our land. I be-
lieve, however, that the distinction of aristocrat and democrat,
however odious and pernicious it may be rendered by political
artifice at particular conjunctures, will never be done away, as
longr as some men are taller and others shorter, some Mdser and
others sillier, some more virtuous and others more vicious, some
richer and others poorer. The distinction is grounded on unal-
terable nature, and human wisdom can do no more than recon-
cile the parties by eqiiTt'able establishments and equal laws,
securing, as far as possible, to every one his own. The distinc- j
tion was intended by nature for the order of society, and the •
benefit of mankind. The parties ought to be like the sexes, ;
mvitually beneficial to each other. And woe will be to that
country, which supinely suffers malicious demagogues to excite
jealousies, foment prejudices, and stimulate animosities between
them !
I adore with you the genius and principles of that religion,
which teaches, as much as possible, to live peaceably with all
men ; yet, it is impossible to be at peace with injustice and
cruelty, with fraud and violence, with despotism, anarchy, and
impiety. A purchased peace could continue no longer than you
continue to pay ; and the field of battle at once, is infinitely
preferable to a course of perpetual and unlimited contribution.
Deeply affected with your prayers for the continuance of my
life, I can only say, that my age and infirmities scarcely allow
me a hope of being the happy instrument of conducting you
through the impending storm.
John Adams.
to the young men of richmond, virginia.
Gentlemen,
An address so respectful to me, so faithful to the nation, and
VOL. IX. 1^
218 OFFICIAL.
true to its government, from so honorable a portion of the young
men of Richmond, cannot fail to be very acceptable to me.
You will not take offence, I hope, at my freedom, however,
if I say, that if you had been taught to cherish in your hearts
an esteem and friendship for France, it would have been enough ;
more than these, toward any foreign power, had better be re-
served.
It might have been as well for us in America, whose distance
is so great, and whose knowledge of France and her govern-
ment was so imperfect, to have suspended our veneration for
the mighty effort which overturned royalty, until we should
have seen all degrading despotism at an end in the country,
and something more consistent with virtue, equality, liberty,
and humanity, substituted in its place. Hitherto the progress
has been from bad to w^orse.
The conduct of the French government towards us is of a
piece with their behaviour to their own citizens and a great
part of Europe. Your sensibility to their insults and injuries
to your country, is very becoming, and your resolution to resist
them do you honor.
A fresh insult is now offered to all America, and especially
to her government, in the arbitrary dismission of two of their
envoys, with scornful intimations of capricious prejudices against
them. But I am weary of enumerating insults and injuries.
John Adams.
TO THE INHABITANTS OF ACCOMAC COUNTY, VIRGINIA.
Gentlemex,
I pray you to accept ray thanks for your unanimous address,
replete with sentiments truly American.
Your conviction, that your government has manifested a most
earnest and sincere desire to preserve peace with all nations,
particularly with the French republic ; your declaration that,
upon a candid review of the conduct of your government, you
can discover nothing which ought to have given umbrage to
that republic, or which can in any wise justify her numerous
aggressions on the persons and properties of our citizens, in
OFFICIAL. 219
direct violation of the law of nations, and in contravention of
her existing treaties with us — ought to give entire satisfaction
to the government.
Your concern and regret, that those efforts to maintain har-
mony have proved abortive, are natural and common to you
and me and all our fellow-citizens, but can be of no use ; instead
of dwelling on our regrets, we must explore our resources. Al-
though we may view war as particularly injurious to the interests
of our country. Providence may intend it for our good, and we
must submit. That it is a less evil than national dishonor, no
man of sense and spirit will deny.
I have no hope that the French republic will soon return to a
sense of justice.
Your promise to cooperate in whatever measures government
may deem conducive to the interests, and consistent with the
honor of the nation, and your pledge of your lives and fortunes,
and all you hold dear, upon the success of the issue, are in the
true spirit of men, of freemen, of Americans, and genuine re-
publicans.
John Adams.
to the senate and assembly of the state of new york.
31 August, 1798.
Gentlemen,
I have received your unanimous address. If an address of
so much dignity and authority could have received any addition
from the channel of conveyance, you have chosen that which is
nearest to my heart, in his Excellency John Jay, Esquire, the
governor of the State of New York, of whose purity, patriotism,
fortitude, independence, and profound wisdom, I have been a
witness for a long course of years. The position in the Union
of the great and growing State of New York, its incalculable
advantages in agriculture as well as commerce, render this
unanimous act of the two houses of its legislature one of the
most important events of the present year.
With the most sincere respect and cordial satisfaction, gentle-
men, I congratulate you on the decided appearance in America
220 OFFICIAL.
of a solid, national character. From the Mississippi to the St.
Croix, unquestionable proofs have been given of national feel-
ings, national principles, and a national system. This is all
that was wanting to establish the power of the American people,
and insure the respect and justice of other nations.
For all that is personal to myself, I pray you to accept my
best thanks. I never have had, and I never shall have, any
claims on the gratitude of my country. If I have done my duty
to them, and they are convinced of it, this is all I have desired
or shall desire.
The strong claims which your State holds in the national
defence and protection, will have every attention that depends
on me.
I thank you for the expression of the satisfaction you derive
from the fresh instance of great and disinterested patriotism,
which my illustrious predecessor has manifested. May he long
continue to be, as he ever has been, the insti'ument of great
good, and the example of great virtue to his fellow-citizens !
The last act of his political life, in accepting his appointment,
will be recorded in history as one of the most brilliant examples
of public virtue that ever was exhibited among mankind.
John Adams.
TO THE boston MARINE SOCIETY, MASSACHUSETTS.
7 September, 1798.
Gentlemen,
I thank you for this respectful address. The existence of the
independence of any nation cannot be more grossly attacked,
the sovereign rights of a country cannot be more offensively
violated, than by a refusal to receive ambassadors sent as minis-
ters of explanation and concord; especially if such refusal is
accompanied with public and notorious circumstances of deli-
berate indignity, insult, and contempt. Indiscriminate despolia-
tions on our commerce, grounded on the contemptuous opinion
that we are a divided, defenceless, and mercenary people, are
not so egregious and aggravated a provocation offered to the
OFFICIAL. 221
face of a whole nation as the former. 1 rejoice that you indig-
nantly feel that you dare to resent; and that you hope to vindi-
cate the injured and insulted character of our common country.
When friendship becomes insult, or is permitted only on terms
dictated and imposed, it becomes an intolerable yoke, and it is
time to shake it off. Better at once to become generous ene-
mies, than maintain a delusive and precarious connection with
such insidious friends.
Whatever pretexts the French people, or a French prince
of the blood with his train, or a combination of families of
the first quality with officers of the army, had, for their efforts
for the annihilation of the monarchy, we certainly, far from
being under any obligation, had no right or excuse to interfere
for their assistance. If, by the collateral props of the monar-
chy, you mean the nobility and the clergy, what has followed
the annihilation of them? AH their revenues have been seized
and appropriated by another prop of the old monarchy, the
army; and the nation is become, as all other nations of Eu-
rope are becoming, if French principles and systems prevail,
a congregation of soldiers and serfs. The French revolution
has ever been incomprehensible to me. The substance of all
that I can understand of it is, that one of the pillars of the an-
cient monarchy, that is the army, has fallen upon the other two,
the nobility and the clergy, and broken them both down. The
building has fallen, of course, and this pillar is now the whole
edifice. The military serpent has swallowed that of Aaron, and
all the rest. If the example should be followed through Europe,
when the officers of the armies begin to quarrel with one an-
other, five hundred years more of Barons' wars may succeed.
If the French, therefore, will become the enemies of all mankind,
by forcing all nations to follow their example, in the subver-
sion of all the political, religious, and social institutions, which
time, experience, and freedom have sanctioned, they ought to
be opposed by every country that has any pretensions to prin-
ciple, spirit, or patriotism.
Floating batteries and wooden walls have been my favorite
system of warfare and defence for this country for three and
twenty years. I have had very little success in making prose-
lytes. At the present moment, however, Americans in general,
cultivators as well -as merchants and mariners, begin to look to
19*
222 OFFICIAL.
that source of security and protection ; and your assistance will
have great influence and effect in extending the opinion in
theory, and in introducing and establishing the practice.
Your kind wishes for my life and health demand my most
respectful and affectionate gratitude, and the return of my sin-
cere prayers for the health and happiness of the Marine Society
at Boston, as well as for the security and prosperity of the
military and commercial marine of the United States, in which
yours is included.
John Adams.
to the cincinnati of south carolina.
15 September, 1798.
Gentlemen,
With great respect and esteem I receive your unanimous
address, agreed on at a meeting expressly called for that pur-
pose on the 22d of August. That men who cheerfully arranged
themselves in the front rank to oppose the most formidable
attack that was ever made on their country ; that men who have
experienced the delightful reflection of having contributed to
the establishment of the liberties and independence of their
country, and have enjoyed the sweetest of rewards in the grate-
ful affection of their fellow-citizens; that such men should even
be lukewarm when the object of their fondest attachment is in
jeopardy, is incredible. I rejoice in your approbation of the
conduct adopted and pursued with France. Conciliation has
been pursued with more patience and perseverance than can be
perfectly reconciled with our national reputation. At least, if
we can reconcile it with our national character and independ-
ence, it must be by peculiar circumstances that we can excuse
it in the opinion of an impartial world — if indeed, at this day,
there is an impartial world. Posterity, who may be impartial
enough to pass an equitable judgment, will allow that the form
of our government, our late connections and relations, and the
present state of all nations, furnish an apology well grounded
on equity and humanity.
The French, and too manv Americans have miscalculated.
OFFICIAL. 223
They have betrayed to the whole world their ignorance of the
American character. As to the French, I know of no govern-
ment ancient or modern that ever betrayed so universal and
decided a contempt of the people of all nations, as the present
rulers of France, They have manifested a settled opinion that
the people have neither sense nor integrity in any country, and
they have acted accordingly.
When you weighed tribute and dependence against war, you
might have added immorality and irreligion to the former scale.
What shall we think of those who can weigh tribute, depend-
ence, immorality, irreligion, against pounds, livres, or florins?
When the Cincinnati of South Carolina pledge their lives, their
fortunes, and their sacred honor, I believe no man will doubt
their integrity.
John Adams.
to the grand jury of the county of dutchess, new york.
22 September, 1798.
Gentlemen,
I have received and read with great pleasure your address of
the 1st of September, which, in this kind of vva-iting, with a few
explanations, may be considered as a model of sense and spirit,
as well as of taste and eloquence.
Is there any mode imaginable in which contempt of the un-
derstanding and feelings of a nation can be expressed with so
much aggravation, as by affecting to treat the government of
their choice as an usurpation?
If in some instances marks of disaffection have appeared in
your State, it is indeed exceedingly to be regretted. If this has
been owing to the influx of foreigners, of discontented charac-
ters, it ought to be a warning. If we glory in making our
country an asylum for virtue in distress and for innocent indus-
try, it behoves us to beware, that under this pretext it is not
made a receptacle of malevolence and turbulence, for the out-
casts of the universe.
The conduct of France must not disgrace the cause of free
governments. With the tears and the blood of millions, she
224 OFFICIAL.
has demonstrated that a free government must be organized
and adjusted with a strict attention to the nature of man, and
the interests and passions of the various classes of which society
is composed ; but she has not made any rational apology for
the advocates of despotic government. Society cannot exist
without laws, and those laws must be executed. In nations
that are populous, opulent, and powerful, the concurrent inte-
rests of great bodies of men operate very forcibly on their
passions, break down the barriers of modesty, decency, and
morality, and can be restrained only by force ; but there are
methods of combining the public force in such a manner as to
restrain the most formidable combinations of interests, passions,
imagination, and prejudice, without recourse to despotic govern-
ment. To these methods it is to be hoped the nations of Europe
will have recourse, rather than to surrender all to military dic-
tators or hereditary despots.
John Adams.
TO THE GRAND JURY OF THE COUNTY OF ULSTER, NEW YORK.
26 September, 1798.
Gentlemen,
I have received with great pleasure your address of the 14th
of this month, and I know not whether any that has been pub-
lished contains more important matter or juster sentiments. It
must be great perverseness and depravity in any, who can
represent the late acts of government, and the necessary mea-
sin-es of self-defence taken by Congress, as a coalition with
Great Britain. It may be useful, however, to analyze our
ideas upon this subject. If by a coalition with Great Britain
be meant a return as colonies under the government of that
country, I declare I know of no individual in America who
would consent to it, nor do I believe that Great Britain would
receive us in that character. Sure I am it would be in her the
blindest policy she ever conceived, for she has already the most
incontestable proof that she cannot govern us. If by a coalition
be meant a perpetual alliance, offensive and defensive, can it be
OFFICIAL. 225
supposed that two thirds of the Senate of the United States
would advise or consent to it without necessity ? Besides, is
any one certain that Britain would agree to it, if we should
propose it? I believe Americans in general have already seen
enough of perpetual alliances. Nevertheless, if France has
made or shall make herself our enemy, and has forced or shall
force upon us a war in our own defence, can we avoid being
useful to Britain while we are defending ourselves ? Can Bri-
tain avoid being useful to us while defending herself or annoying
her enemy ? Would it not be a want of wisdom in both to avoid
any opportunity of aiding each other?
Your civilities to me are very obliging, and deserve my best
thanks.
John Adams.
to the inhabitants of the town of newbern, north
carolina.
Gentlemen,
An address so cordial and respectful as this from the citizens
of Newbern, and your warm approbation of my conduct since
I have filled the office of chief magistrate of the United States,
I ought to hold in the highest estimation.
I was indeed called to it at a crisis fraught with difficulty
and danger, when neither skill in the management of affairs,
more improved than any I could pretend to, nor the purest
integrity of intention, could secure an entire exemption from
involuntary error, much less from censure.
There have been for many years strong indications that no-
thing would satisfy the rulers of the French, but our taking with
them an active part in the war against all their enemies, and
exhausting the last resources of our property to support them,
not only in the pursuit of their chimerical ideas of liberty, but
of universal empire. This we were not only under no obliga-
tion to do, but had reason to believe would have ruined the
laws, constitution, and the morals of our country, as well as
our credit and property.
An ardent enthusiasm, indeed, deluded for a long time too
many of our worthy citizens.
o
226 OFFICIAL.
The honor of your testimony to the integrity of my endeavors
in so difficult a conjuncture, is very precious to my heart.
As the hostile views and nefarious designs of the French
republic are now too notorious to be denied or extenuated, I
believe with you, that the love of our common country will
produce a cordial unanimity of sentiment.
This patriotic and spirited address is a clear indication of
such desirable union, and will have a powerful tendency to en-
courage, strengthen, and promote it.
John Adams.
TO THE OFFICERS AND SOLDIERS OF THE SIXTH BRIGADE OF
THE THIRD DIVISION OF NORTH CAROLINA MILITIA.
26 September, 1798.
Gentlemen,
An address from seven thousand two hundred and ninety-
four men, a number sufficient to compose a respectable army,
giving assurance of their approbation of public measures, and
their determination as men and soldiers to support them with
their lives, must be a pleasing appearance to every lover of his
country. There is no part of the union from which such senti-
ments could be received with more cordial satisfaction than
from the virtuous cultivators and independent planters of the
populous and powerful State of North Carolina. It is happy
for us, and it will be fortunate for the cause of free government,
that America can still unite in the most heartfelt satisfaction,
at seeing the military reins placed in the hands of the present
Commander-in-chief. Your prayers for my life, health, and
prosperity demand my best thanks, and a return of mine for
yours with the same sincerity of heart.
John Adams.
OFFICIAL. 227
to the grand jurors of the county of hampshire,
massachusetts.
3 October, 1798.
Gentlemen,
I have received with much pleasure your address of the 28th
of September from Northampton.
The manifestations of your respect, approbation, and confi-
dence are very flattering to me, and your determination to
support the Constitution and laws of your country is honorable
to yourselves. If a new order of things has commenced, it
behoves us to be cautious, that it may not be for the worse.
If the abuse of Christianity can be annihilated or diminished,
and a more equitable enjoyment of the right of conscience in-
troduced, it will be well ; but this will not be accomplished by
the abolition of Christianity and the introduction of Grecian
mythology, or the worship of modern heroes or heroines, by
erecting statues of idolatry to reason or virtue, to beauty or to
taste. It is a serious problem to resolve, whether aU the abuses
of Christianity, even in the darkest ages, when the Pope deposed
princes and laid nations under his interdict, were ever so bloody
and cruel, ever bore down the independence of the human
mind with such terror and intolerance, or taught doctrines
which required such implicit credulity to believe, as the present
reign of pretended philosophy in France.
John Adams.
TO the inhabitants of MACHIAS, district of MAINE.
5 October, 1798.
Gentlemen,
I have received and considered your elegant address of the
10th August. Although you reside in a remote part of the
United States, it is very manifest you have not been inattentive
or indifferent spectators of the dangerous encroachments of a
228 OFFICIAL.
foreign nation. You are of opinion that no connection with
the present governors of that nation or their agents, ought to be
sought or desired. Your country, I presume, will not meanly
sue for peace, or engage in war from motives of ambition, vanity,
or revenge. I presume further, that she will never again suffer
her ambassadors to remain in France many days or hours
unacknowledged, without an audience of the sovereign, unpro-
tected and unprivileged, nor to enter into conferences or conver-
sations with any agents or emissaries, who have not a regular
commission of equal rank with their own, and who shall not
have shown their original commission and exchanged official
copies with them. While extraordinary circumstances are our
apology for the past deviation from established rules, founded
in unquestionable reason and propriety, the odious conse-
quences of it will be an everlasting admonition to avoid the
like for the future. At present we have only to prepare for
action.
John Adams.
to the officers of the first brigade of the third divi-
sion of the militia of massachusetts.
11 October, 1798.
Gentlemen,
I have received from Major-General Hull and Brigadier-
General Walker your unanimous address from Lexington, ani-
mated with a martial spirit, and expressed with a military
dignity becoming your character and the memorable plains on
which it was adopted.
While our country remains untainted with the principles and
manners which are now producing desolation in so many parts
of the world; while she continues sincere, and incapable of
insidious and impious policy, we shall have the strongest rea-
son to rejoice in the local destination assigned us by Providence.
But should the people of America once become capable of that
deep simulation towards one another, and towards foreign na-
tions, which assumes the language of justice and moderation
while it is practising iniquity and extravagance, and displays
OFFICIAL. 229
in the most captivating manner the charming pictures of candor,
frankness, and sincerity, while it is rioting in rapine and inso-
lence, this country will be the most miserable habitation in the
world; because we have no government armed with power
capable of contending with human passions unbridled by mo-
rality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry,
would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale
goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a
moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the
government of any other.
An address from the officers commanding two thousand eight
hundred men, consisting of such substantial citizens as are able
and willing at their own expense completely to arm and clothe
themselves in handsome uniforms, does honor to that division
of the militia which has done so much honor to its country.
Oaths in this country are as yet universally considered as
sacred obligations. That which you have taken and so solemnly
repeated on that venerable spot, is an ample pledge of your
sincerity and devotion to yovir country and its government.
John Adams.
to the officers of the guilford regiment of militia, and
the inhabitants of guilford county, north carolina.
19 October, 1798.
Gentlemen,
The unanimous address adopted by you, has been transmitted,
as you directed, by Major John Hamilton to Mr. Steele, and by
Mr. Steele to me.
Addresses like yours, so friendly to me and so animated with
public spirit, can never stand in need of any apology. It is, on
the contrary, very true, that the affectionate addresses of my
fellow-citizens have flowed in upon me, from various parts of
the Union, in such numbers, that it has been utterly impossible
for me to preserve any regularity in my answers, without neglect-
ing the indispensable daily duties of my office. This, and a long
continued and very dangerous sickness in my family, most
VOL. IX. 20
230 OFFICIAL.
seriously alarming to me, will, I hope, be accepted by you, and
by all others whose favors have not been duly noticed, as an
apology for a seeming neglect, which has been a very great
mortification to me. There is no language within my com-
mand, sufficient to express the satisfaction I have felt at the
abundant proofs of harmony and unanimity among the people,
especially in the southern States, and in none more remark-
ably than in North Carolina.
Your patriotic address, adopted on the ground where a me-
morable battle was fought by freemen, on the 15th of March,
1781, in defence of their liberties and independence, is peculiarly
forcible and affecting.
John Adams.
TO THE OFFICERS OF THE THIRD DIVISION OF GEORGIA
MILITIA.
31 October, 1798.
Gentlemen,
An address so full of attachment to the Constitution, confi-
dence in the government, and respect and affection to me,
adopted by so large a portion of the militia, and subscribed by
so long a list of respectable officers, demands my most respect-
ful and affectionate acknowledgments.
The honest zeal of our countrymen for a cause which they
thought connected with liberty and humanity, might lead some
of them to intemperate irregularities, which a sound discretion
and strict policy could not justify ; and these might lead the
French government and their agents into some of the unwar-
rantable measures they have hazarded. Wisdom will teach us
a lesson from this experience, to be more upon our guard in
future, more slow to speak, and more swift to hear. It should
even teach us to be cautious, that we may not be hurried into
a contrary extreme.
The acceptance of General Washington has commanded the
admiration of all men of principle. A soul so social and public
as his could not live tranquil in retirement in a country bleeding
around him. Those who were most delighted with the thought
OFFICIAL. 231
of his undisturbed happiness in retreat, after a life of anxiety,
cannot but approve of his resolution to take the field again
with his fellow-citizens, and close his long glories in active life,
in case his countiy should be invaded.
I am happy if my answer to the young men of Augusta has
your approbation, and receive and return with gratitude your
kind wishes for my health and happiness.
John Adams.
TO THE GRAND JURY OF MORRIS COUNTY, IN NEW JERSEY.
3 April, 1799.
Gentlemen,
Your obliging address at the Circuit Court of the State, in
the March term of this year, has been transmitted to me by
Elisha Boudinot, Esquire, one of the Justices of your Supreme
Court, according to your request.
The indignation you express at the combinations to resist the
operation of the laws, is evincive of the dispositions of good
citizens, and does you much honor. That infatuation which
alone can excite citizens to rise in arms against taxes laid in
consideration of the necessities of the State, and with great
deliberation, by their representatives, and which induces an
obvious necessity of raising more taxes, in order to defray the
expense of suppressing their own presumptuous folly, is indeed
surprising. That the laws must be obeyed in a government of
laws, is an all important lesson. For what can be more de-
structive of liberty and property than government without law,
whether in one, few, or many? Insurrection itself is govern-
ment assumed, and without law, though partial and temporary,
and without right.
While the door is not closed by any foreign compact, or by
obvious principles of policy or justice, it will always by me
be held open, from a sense of my duty, for an accommodation
of differences with any and all nations, however " powerful,
insidious, or dangerous " they may be supposed to be, unless I
could see a probable prospect of rendering them less so by our
232 OFFICIAL.
interference. "Dangers to the peace, rights, and liberties of
mankind," arising from their corruptions and divisions, are too
numerous to be controlled by us, who from our situation have
of all nations the least colorable pretensions to assume the
balance and the rod. If we are forced into the scale, it will be
against our inclination and judgment; and however light we
may be thought to be, we will weigh as heavy as we can.
The end of even war is peace. Your approbation gives me
pleasure. Whenever we have enemies, it will be their own
fault; and they will be under no necessity of continuing ene-
mies longer than they choose. In the present crisis, however,
we ought to continue, with unabated ardor, all our preparations
and operations of defence.
John Adams.
to the citizens, inhabitants of the mississippi territory.
8 April, 1799.
Gentlemen,
With much pleasure I have received, through your able and
faithful Governor, your obliging address of the 5th of January.
As your situation on a frontier of the United States, near a
nation under whose government many of you have lived, and
with whose inhabitants you are well acquainted, qualifies you
in a particular manner to maintain a benevolent, pacific, and
friendly conduct towards your neighbors, and entitles you to a
return of a similar behavior from them ; it is to be hoped and
expected that the peace and friendship between the two nations
will be by these means preserved and promoted, and that the
eiTiissaries of no other nation that may be hostile, will be able
to destroy or diminish your mutual esteem and regard.
The sentiments of attachment to the Constitution which you
avow, are such as become the best Americans, and will secure
you the confidence of government, and the esteem and affection
of your fellow-citizens throughout the Union.
John Adams.
OFFICIAL. 233
to the inhabitants of the city of washington.
5 June, 1800.
Fellow-Citizens,
I receive with pleasure, in this address, your friendly welcome
to the city, and particularly this place. I congratulate you
on the blessings which Providence has been pleased to bestow
in a particular manner on this situation, and especially on its
destination to be the permanent seat of government. May the
future councils of this august temple be forever governed by
truth and liberty, friendship, virtue, and faith, which, as they are
themselves the chief good and principal blessings of human
nature, can never fail to insure the union, safety, prosperity, and
glory of America !
John Adams.
TO the CITIZENS OF ALEXANDRIA.
11 June, 1800.
Gextlemen,
I receive from the citizens of Alexandria this kind salutation
on my first visit to Virginia with much pleasure. In the earlier
part of my life, I felt, at some times, an inexpressible grief, and
at others, an unutterable indignation, at the injustice and indig-
nities which I thought wantonly heaped on my innocent, vir-
tuous, peaceable, and unoffending country. And perceiving
that the American people, from New Hampshire to Georgia,
felt and thought in the same manner, I determined, refusing all
favors and renouncing all personal obligations to the aggressors,
to run every hazard with my countrymen, at their invitation, by
sea and land, in opposition and resistance, well knowing that if
we should be unfortunate, all the pains and all the disgrace
which injustice and cruelty could inflict, would be the destina-
tion of me and mine. Providence smiled on our well-meant
endeavours, and perhaps in no particular more remarkably than
in giving us your incomparable Washington for the leader of
our armies. Our country has since enjoyed an enviable tran-
20*
234 OFFICIAL.
quillity and uncommon prosperity. We are grown a great
people. This city, and many others which I have seen since I
left Philadelphia, exhibit very striking proofs of our increase, on
which I congratulate you. May no error or misfortune throw
a veil over the bright prospect before us !
John Adams.
TO THE corporation OF NEW LONDON, CONNECTICUT.
1 July, 1800.
Gentlemen,
I receive with sincere satisfaction this testimony of esteem
from the corporation of this respectable city of New London.
The part I took in our important and glorious revolution was
the effect of a sense of duty ; of the natural feelings of a man for
his native country and the native country of his ancestors for
several generations ; of all the principles, moral, civil, political,
and religious, in which I had been educated ; and if it had been
even more injurious than it has been, or ever so destructive to
my private affairs, or ruinous to my family, I should never
repent it. I did but concur with my fathers, friends, fellow-
citizens, and countrymen, in their sensations and reflections,
and lay no claim to more than a common share with them in
the result.
It would be devoutly and eternally to be deplored, if this
most glorious achievement, or the principal characters engaged
in it, should ever fall into disgrace in the eyes of Americans.
In return for your kind wishes, gentlemen, I wish you every
blessing.
John Adams.
OFFICIAL. 235
to the inhabitants of the county of edgecombe, north
carolina.
15 August, 1800.
Gentlemen,
I received last night, and have read with serious concern,
mingled with lively sentiments of gratitude, your animated
address. As, from the nature of our government, the choice of
the first magistrate will generally fall on men advanced in years,
we ought to be prepared to expect frequent changes of persons,
from accidents, infirmities, and death, if not from election ; but
it is to be presumed that the good sense and integrity of the
people, which the Constitution supposes, will indicate characters
and principles, that may continue the spirit of an administra-
tion which has been found salutary and satisfactory to the
nation, when persons must be changed. I cannot give up the
hope that to be active in fault finding, and clamorous against
wise laws and just measures of government, is not to be most
popular. When popularity becomes so corrupt, if it cannot be
corrected, all is lost.
For forty years my mind has been so entirely occupied and
engrossed with public cares, that I have not been able to give
much attention to any thing else. Whatever advantages this
country may have derived from my feeble efforts, I wish they
had been much greater, and less disputable. If any disadvan-
tages have resulted from them, I hope they will be pardoned, as
the effect of involuntary error — for I will be bold to say, no
man ever served his country with purer intentions, or from
more disinterested motives.
You may rely upon this, that, as, on the one hand, I never
shall love war, or seek it for the pleasure, profit, or honor of it,
so, on the other, I shall never consent to avoid it, but upon
honorable terms.
Very far am I from thinidng your determination desperate,
to risk your lives and fortunes in support of your constitutional
rights and privileges. I perceive no disposition in the American
people to go to war with each other ; and no foreign hostilities
236 OFFICIAL.
that can be apprehended in a just and necessary cause, have
any terrors for you or me.
Your fervent prayer for the long continuance of my days,
shall be accompanied by mine, for the much longer continuance
of your laws, liberties, prosperity, and felicity.
John Adams.
to the senate and house of representatives of
massachusetts.
26 March, 1801.
The very respectful, affectionate, and obliging address, which
has been presented to me by the President of the Senate and
Speaker of the House of Representatives, by your order, has
awakened all my sensibility, and demands iny most grateful
acknowledgments.
As the various testimonials of the approbation and affection
of my fellow-citizens of Massachusetts, which have been in-
dulged to me from my earliest youth, have ever been esteemed
the choicest blessings of my life, so this final applause of the
legislature, so generously given after the close of the last scene
of the last act of my political drama, is more precious than any
which preceded it. There is now no greater felicity remaining
for me to hope or desire, than to pass the remainder of my days
in repose, in an undisturbed participation of the common privi-
leges of our fellow-citizens under your protection.
The satisfaction you have found in the administration of the
general government from its commencement, is highly agreeable
to me; and I sincerely hope that the twelve years to come will
not be less prosperous or happy for our country.
With the utmost sincerity, I reciprocate your devout suppli-
cations, for the happiness of yourselves, your families, consti-
tuents, and posterity.
John Adams.
COREESPONDENCE.
>
COERESPONDENCE
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN
THE BOSTON PATRIOT.
PKELBONARY NOTE.
The antipathy secretly entertained by Alexander Hamilton to John Adams,
dating its origin so far back as the first years of the revolutionary war, inter-
mitted but once, and ending in three successive attempts to undermine his posi-
tion as a candidate for the chief official posts of the country, only the last of
which proved effective, is now rendered apparent even by the incomplete publi-
cation that has been lately made of Hamilton's papers. It was not, however,
until the death of General Washington, that the avowed disinclination of Mr.
Adams further to pursue the war policy with France, and to intrust to that
gentleman the chief command of the army, led to an open declaration of enmity.
The pamphlet then composed by him, entitled, " The public conduct and cha-
racter of John Adams, Esquire, President of the United States," was unques-
tionably intended to destroj^Mr. Adams's chance of reelection, at all hazards,
although it was found necessary to apologize for the act to the great body of
the federal party, whom it was sure simultaneously to destroy, by giving it the
shape of a secret effort to turn the scale in the House of Eepresentatives in favor
of Mr. C. C. Pinckney, Ukewise a federalist, over Mr. Adams, which two gentle-
men were to be brought there upon an electoral majority exactly equal. Any
other construction than this Impeaches Mr. Hamilton's political sagacity and
foresight too much to be admissible. It is scarcely to be imagined that such a
document, once . put into a printer's hands, could fail to escape the lynx eyes of
the hostile politicians of New York, headed by a man so acute as Aaron Burr.
In addition, it may be shown that Mr. Hamilton had taken the trouble personally
to reconnoitre beforehand the ground In New England, whereby he became
convinced that the scheme of an equal vote for Mr. Pinckney was not likely to
succeed, and that Immediately upon his return he avowed publication as a part
of his design.^ That he did not persevere In this, was owing to the suggestions
of his political friends rather than to his own Inchnatlon.
1 Hamilton to Wolcott. 3d August. WorJcs, vol. vi. p. 450. The same to Bayard,
p. 452.
x/
240 CORRESPONDENCE.
As it was, the pamphlet appeared surreptitiously, whilst Mr. Adams Avas Pre-
sident, and when he could take no notice of it without materially compromising
the dignity of his position. But after his tei'm expired in March, 1801, it seems
that he addressed himself to the labor of a reply, and j>repared the materials
which he designed to use. The reason why he did not perfect his design, is
nowhere explained. Possibly it might have grown out of the condition of
things consequent upon Mr. JefFel-son's accession to the Presidency, which fur-
nished little chance for a favorable hearing in any quarter. Perhaps it may
have been owing to the fall of Mr. Hamilton. A large portion of the federal
party, which he had represented, was giving in its adhesion to Mr. Jefferson,
whilst the rest was dwindling down to a fragment in the northern and eastern
States, exclusively under the guidance of those individuals with whom he had
come to a rupture, in sentiment if not in action, during his own administration.
The new policy these persons were pursuing was one with which he could as
little sympathize as with the old one. Yet he preserved total silence until a,t-
tacks were revived upon him, and upon his son John Quincy Adams, on account
of opinions expressed upon later questions. It happened that in 1809^ an
extract from the Baltimore Federal Republican, met his eye, in which, among
I other things, the old charges were repeated against him for instituting the mls-
^ I sion of 1799 to France, the gravest article in the pamphlet of Mi*. Hamilton;
' and this led to an extended pubUcation of documents and reasonings in the
columns of the Boston Patriot, touching a large part of his public career, but a
portion of which is to be found collected in the volume, entitled " Correspond-
' ence of the late President Adams," published in Boston the same year.
For reasons already given, it has been deemed unadvisable to reprint these
materials as they appear in the Patriot. Two separate extracts, complete in
themselves, are now given. The first is confined to Mr. Adams's defence of
himself against Mr. Hamilton's attack, This step is made necessary by the
republication of that pamphlet in the works of that gentleman. It is proper to
state that, although written in 1809, the substantial facts were drawn from the
'^ fragments prepared in 1801. This is to be kept in mind, the more because
Mr. GibbSj^in his late work, has endeavored to do, what none of the persons
alluded to ever attempted in their lifetime, — dispute the accuracy of the narra-
tive, as if composed merely from the impaired recollection of a later period.
It is true that, in a few particulars, incidental additions are made, which show
haste in the preparation of the later production, as well as inattention to the
exact order of the details; but these errors will not be found to affect the
force of the facts, or of the argument, in any essential point. Whatever they
are, it is believed they are all mentioned and corrected in the notes. Such por-
tions of the materials prepared in 1801, as are deemed useful to compare with
the text, are also appended, together with references to any passages elsewhere
in this work, and in other works, that appear to furnish light upon this obscure
and disputed portion of American history. An endeavor has been made to
sti'ip the consideration of the questions involved of all the acrimony that origin-
ally attached to them, and to confine the comments as much as possible to a
simple elucidation of the facts.
The second extract embraces an examination of a question of a different
nature, and connected with a later period of American politics.
TO THE PRINTERS OF THE BOSTON PATRIOT.
LETTER I.
I was glad to see in your paper of the 7th of this month the
extract from the Baltimore Federal Republican, for many reasons,
which may be explained in due time. One or two may be
stated now.
1. I was pleased with the candid acknowledgment, that " Mr.
Adams never was a favorite with the leading' men of the federal
party." The \vords leading- men will require some explanation,
and some limitations and restrictions which may hereafter ap-
pear. But, in general, this is a truth which I have known for
twenty years, though it has never been publicly avowed, to my
knowledge, till now.
2. I am happy to see, what I consider as an acknowledgment,
that my unpardonable sin against the federal party, or rather
against those leading men, was the peace with France in 1800 —
an event which has given this country eight years of its most
splendid prosperity. The writer mentions the mission to France
in 1799, as a measure which brought odium and ridicule on my,
administration. If you will allow me a little room in your
Patriot, I may hereafter produce proofs to the satisfaction of
the public, that this measure was neither odious nor ridiculous.
At this time I will only send you a communication from Gene-
ral Washington, by which it will appear that the subject was
not seen by that great ornament of his country in the same light
in which this writer sees it.^
• •••••••••
The letter from Mr. Barlow^, inclosed in General Washing-
ton's, is in these words.^
Neither Mr. Barlow's letter nor General Washington's opinion
would have influenced me to nominate a minister, if I had not
received abundant assurances to the same effect from regular
1 Here follows a letter of General Washington, wliicli Is now omitted, as it
can be readily found in Mr. Sparks's edition of his writings. Vol. xi. p. 399.
2 Mr. Bai'low's letter is printed in Sparks's Washington, vol. xi. Appendix,
p. 560.
VOL. IX. 21 p
242 CORRESPONDENCE.
diplomatic sources.^ I, however, considered General Washing-
ton's question, whether Mr. Barlow's was written with a very
good or a very bad design ; and as, with all my jealousy, I had
not sagacity enough to discover the smallest room for suspicion
of any ill design, I frankly concluded that it was written with a
very good one.
From General Washington's letter it appears, 1st. That it
was his opinion that the restoration of peace upon just, honor-
able, and dignified terms was the ardent desire of all the friends
of this rising empire. 2d. That he thought negotiation might
be brought on upon open, fair, and honorable ground. 3d. That
he was so desirous of peace, that he was willing to enter into
correspondence with Mr. Barlow, a private gentleman, without
any visible credentials or public character, or responsibility to
either government, in order to bring on a public negotiation.
General Washington, therefore, could not consider the negotia-
tion odious.
11.
The institution of an embassy to France, in 1799, was made
upon principle, and in conformity to a system of foreign affairs,
formed upon long deliberation, established in my mind, and
amply opened, explained, and supported in Congress, — that is,
a system of eternal neutrality, if possible, in all the wars of Eu-
rope,— at least eighteen years before President Washington's
Proclamation of Neutrality, in 1794. For the truth of the an-
tiquity of this system, I appeal to Judge Chase, who made the
first motion in Congress for entering into foreign relations.
This motion was made in concert with me, and was seconded
by me. If I am incorrect in any circumstance, that gentleman
can set me right. And here I feel a pride in acknowledging
that perhaps no two members of Congress were at that time
upon more intimate terms. We flickered, disputed, and wrangled
in public and private, but always with a species of good humor
that never was suffered to diminish the confidence, esteem, or
affection of either in the other. I have long wished for a fair
opportunity of transmitting to posterity my humble testimony
^ Mr. Adams's answer to General Washington is printed in this work. Vol. viii.
p. 624.
CORRESPONDENCE. 243
to the virtues and talents of that able and upright magistrate
and statesman.
Our system was, to form treaties of commerce with France,
Spain, Holland, and all the other nations of Europe, even with
England herself, upon a footing of entire equality ; but by no
means to form any political or military connections with any
power in Europe, or engage in any hostilities against any,
unless driven to them by necessity to support our independence
and honor, or our just and necessary interests. In what man-
ner and by whose means this plan has ever been abandoned in
any degree, I could detail from step to step, but it would require
a volume, and is not necessary here. It has never been forgot-
ten by me ; but the rectitude and wisdom of it has been con-
firmed by every year's and day's experience from 1776 to 1799,
and indeed to 1809.
This introduction will be called pompous, no doubt, and it
will be thought an astonishing instance of the bathos to descend
from Judge Chase to Mr. Logan; but my plan requires it.
With this system clear in my head, and deeply impressed
upon my heart, it was with the utmost reluctance that I found
myself under a necessity, in 1798, of having recourse to hostili-
ties against France. But the conduct of that government had
been so unjust, arbitrary, and insolent, as to become intolerable.
I therefore animated this^nation to war, determined, however^
to listen to every proposal, and embrace the first opportunity to
restore peace, whenever it could be done consistently with the
honor and interest of the country. In this spirit I gave all due
attention and consideration to General Washington's and Mr.
Barlow's letters ; nor was I wholly inattentive to a multitude
of other circumstances, some of which shall be mentioned.
Perhaps at no period of our connection with France has there
ever been such a flood of private letters from that country to
this as in the winter of 1798 and 1799. The contents of many
of them were directly or indirectly communicated to me. They
w^ere all in a similar strain with that of Mr. Barlow, that the
French government had changed their ground, and were sincerely
disposed to negotiation and accommodation. I will instance
only two. Mr. Codman, of Boston, wrote largely and explicitly
to his friends to the same purpose ; and his worthy brother, the
late Mr. John Codman, of Boston, not only communicated to
244 CORRESPONDENCE.
me the substance of his brother's letters, but thanked me, in
warm terms, for opening a negotiation ; and added, that every
true friend of this country, who was not poisoned with party
spirit, would thank me for it and support me in it. Mr. Natha-
niel Cutting, a consul in France under President Washington's
appointment, and a sensible man, wrote almost as largely as
Mr. Barlow, and to the same effect.
I shall conclude this letter with another anecdote. Mr. Lo-
gan, of Philadelphia, a gentleman of fortune and education, and
certainly not destitute of abilities, who had for several years
been a member of the legislature of Pennsylvania, and has
since been a senator of the United States, though I knew he
had been one of the old constitutional party in that State, and
a zealous disciple of that democratical school, which has propa-
gated many errors in America, and, perhaps, many tragical
catastrophes in Europe, went to France, either with the pretext
or the real design of improving his knowledge in agiicultui-e,
and seeing the practice of it in that country. I had no reason
to believe him a corrupt character, or deficient in memory or
veracity. After his return he called upon me, and in a polite
and respectful manner informed me that he had been honored
with conversations with Talleyrand, who had been well ac-
quainted with me, and repeatedly entertained at my house, and
now visited me at his request to express to me the desire of the
Directory as well as his own, to accommodate all disputes with
America, and to forget all that was past ; to request me to
send a minister from America, or to give credentials to some
one already in Europe, to treat; and to assure me that my
minister should be received, and all disputes accommodated, in
a manner that would be satisfactory to me and my country.
I knew the magical words. Democrat and Jacobin^ were enough
to destroy the credibility of any witness with some people.
But not so with me, I saw marks of candor and sincerity in
this relation, that convinced me of its truth.
But the testimonies of Mr. Codman, Mr. Cutting, Mr. Bar-
low, and Mr. Logan, and all other private communications,
though they might convince my own mind, would have had
no influence to dispose me to nominate a minister, if I had not
received authentic, regular, official, diplomatic assurances, which
may be sent you in another letter.
CORRESPONDENCE. 245
III.
From Mr. Murray, the American minister at the Hague, who
had been appointed by President Washington, I received assur-
ances from the French government similar to those in Mr. Bar-
low's letter and so many others. They were conveyed from the
French Directory to Mr. Pichon, secretary of the legation and
charge des affaires of the French republic near the Batavian
republic, in the absence of the French ambassador, by him
officially communicated to Mr. Murray, and by him to the Exe-
cutive of the United States. The communication was in these
words.i
This letter was transmitted by Mr. Murray to the American
government, and I own I am not acquainted with any words,
either in the French or English language, which could have
expressed in a more solemn, a more explicit, or a more decided
manner, assurances of all that I had demanded as conditions
of negotiation. How could I get rid of it with honor, or even
without infamy? If ever there was a regular diplomatic com-
munication, this was one. The diplomatic organs were all
perfect and complete. Mr. Pichon was well known at Phila-
delphia, where he had resided some years in a public employ-
ment in the family of the French ambassador, as a respectable
man and a man of letters. He was now secretary of legation,
held a commission from his sovereign as much as a minister
plenipotentiary ; and every secretary of legation in the absence
of his principal minister, is, of course, charge des affaires; and
the acts of a charge des affaires are as official, as legal, and
authentic, as those of an ambassador extraordinary.
In what other manner could Mr. Talleyrand have transmitted
the assurances demanded ? He had communicated them to
Mr. Gerry, but was desirous of sending them by another way,
that he might increase the chances of their arrival. At war
with England, he could not send them to Mr. King. If he had
sent them to Madrid, to Colonel Humphreys, there was no pro-
bability of their arriving in America so soon as through Holland.
^ This communication has been already printed in this work, in its connection
with the letters of Mr Murray. Vol. viii. Appendix, p. 690.
21*
246 CORRESPONDENCE.
If he had sent them to Berlin, to Mr. Adams, the course would
have been still more circuitous, and the probability much greater
of long delay and uncertain arrival. If he had sent them to
Mr. Smith, at Lisbon, there would have been the same difficul-
ties. Of all the diplomatic organs, therefore, in Europe, he
chose the best, the shortest, the safest, and the most certain.
Mr. Gerry's letter to the Secretary of State, dated Nantasket
Road, October the 1st, 1798, confirmed these assurances beyond
all doubt, in my mind, and his conversations with me at my own
house, in Quincy, if any thing further had been wanting, would
have corroborated the whole. As I have not a copy of that gen-
tleman's letter, if he should chance to read this papei*, I ask the
favor of him to publish copies of his letter and of Mr. Talley-
rand's letters to him, and, if he pleases, to repeat the assurances
he gave me in conversation.^ This gentleman's merit in this
transaction was very great. It has been treated like all his
other sacrifices, services, and sufferings in the cause of his
country.
If, with all this information, I had refused to institute a nego-
tiation, or had not persevered in it after it was instituted, I should
have been degraded in my own estimation as a man of honor;
I should have disgraced the nation I represented, in their own
opinion and in the judgment of all Europe.
1 Note by Mr. Gerry : " The ' assurances ' to wliich ]\Ir. Adams lias referred
as Laving been imparted to him in conversation by Mr. Gerry, are presumed by
the latter to have reference to those which the French Directory made to him
by their minister, Mr. Talleyrand, and by confidential persons, after the depart-
ure of the other envoys. They were expressed in the strongest terms to evince
the disposition of the Directory for accommodating all subjects of difference
between the two republics ; for accrediting any minister or ministers which
should thereafter have been sent by the United States, immediately on the pre-
sentment of their letters of credence ; for adopting a commercial treaty that
should be liberal and beneficial to the said States ; and for making effectual ar-
rangements to discharge the numerous and just demands of American citizens
on the French republic. Indeed, the ' assurances ' were such as that any depart-
ure from them must have forfeited any subsequent claim of credit on the part
of the French republic."
Mr. Gerry further published in the Boston Patriot, extracts from his papers,
which make a part of the volume from which the text is taken. At that time
they were not readily accessible elsewhere. But they are now omitted, on
account of the space they would occupy. They may be found in Wait's State
Papers, as follows ; viz. :
1. E. Gerry to C. M. Talleyrand, 1 October, 1798, vol. iv. pp. 154-1G9.
2. C. M. Talleyrand to E. Gerry, 22 July, 1798, pp. 220-221.
3. The same to the same, 3 August, 1798, p. 222.
4. Substance of a conference with the Dutch minister, 25 July, 1798, p. 228.
CORRESPONDENCE. 247
IV.
When I had received that authentic act of the sovereign
authority of France, a copy of which is inserted in my last letter
to you, communicated by their Secretary of State, through their
secretary of legation and charge des affaires, and our minister
at the Hague, fully complying with all my requisitions, upon
mature deliberation I determined to nominate a minister to
France. Some of the communications from France had been
accompanied with intimations concerning the characters proper
to be employed, which I thought exceptionable, and that they
might be made a pretext for again rejecting a minister. I con-
sidered, moreover, that France was an undulating ocean in a
violent storm ; party had exterminated party, and constitution
had succeeded constitution, as billow rolls and roars, froths and
foams after billow in the Gulf Stream. I knew that in the
nature of things an executive authority in five persons could
not last long in France or anywhere else ; and we were already
informed that the Directory was divided into parties, three
against two, and that the majority in the legislative assembly
adhered to the two, and the minority to the three. A revolution
then was to be expected, and the new government might not
feel themselves bound by the assurances given by their prede-
cessors. To avoid the possibility of these inconveniences, I
provided as cautiously and effectually against them as I could,
in my message to the Senate, which never has been published.
If this message had been made public, with its contents — the
public despatch from France — I have confidence enough in the
candor of the nation to believe that it would have obviated
many a silly and many a malicious criticism. It was in these
words.i
In this manner effectual provision was made against any and
every possible insidious use of the insinuations concerning cha-
racters proper to be employed, and who would be likely to
succeed. In this manner, also, provision was made against the
po'^sible, and indeed highly probable and fully expected revolu-
tion, in the French government. Mr. Murray was not to advance
1 For this message, see p. 162 of this volume.
248 CORRESPONDENCE.
a step towards Paris from the Hague, until after he should have
received from the French government, whatever it might be, a
repetition of assurances, officially communicated, that he in
person should be received.
When this message was received in the Senate, it was post-
poned, as the greatest part of the executive business usually
was, for consideration.^ A great clamor was raised among the
members of the House of Representatives, and out of doors, and
an abundance of squibs, scoffs, and sarcasms, in what were then
called the federal newspapers, particularly Cobbett's Porcupine
and John Ward Fenno's United States Gazette. And by whom
were these written ? As I was informed, by Macdonald, the
Scottish British commissioner for adjusting the claims of British
creditors, and by William Smith, the British agent for claimants
before that board of commissioners, of whom Macdonald was
one. There were other writers besides these ; but I will not
condescend to name any others at present. It was given out
that John Ward Fen no was the writer of the most important
of them, and he was represented as a masterly writer, possessed
of a most eloquent pen. But the pen tvas not his.
This was not all. Something much more serious to me soon
took place. A committee of the Senate called upon me, whether
appointed on record or whether by private concert, I know not.
I was distressed, because I thought the procedure unconstitu-
tional. However, I was determined that not one disrespectful
word should escape me concerning the Senate or any member
of it, and to that resolution I carefully adhered; and in relating
the conference with those honorable gentlemen, which shall
appear in my next letter, the same decorum shall be observed.
V.
The gentlemen of the Senate informed me, that they came
to confer with me on the subject of the nomination of Mr. Mur-
ray to France ; that there was a considerable dissatisfaction
with it, and they desired to know for what reasons I had pre-
1 It was postponed partly to gain time to write to Mr. Hamilton. See the
letters that passed between Mr. Sedgwick and Mr. Hamilton. The latter sug-
gesting the enlargement of the mission. Hamilton's Works, vol. vi. pp. 396 - 397.
CORRESPONDENCE. 249
ferred Mr. Murray to yo many others abroad and at home. My
answer to the gentlemen was, that I thought Mr. Murray a
gentleman of talents, address, and literature, as well as of great
worth and honor, every way well qualified for the service, and
fully adequate to all that I should require of him, which would
be a strict compliance with his instructions, which I should take
care to provide for him, on all points, in terms that he could not
misunderstand. That my motives for nominating him in pre-
ference to others, were simply because the invitation from the
French government had been transmitted through him, and
because he was so near to Paris that he might be there in three
or four days, and because his appointment would cause a very
trifling additional expense.
They then inquired, why I had not nominated Mr. King. I
answered that, if Mr. King had been in Holland, I certainly
should not have thought of any other character. But he was
our ambassador in England, then at Avar with France, and it
would be considered by France as an insult to send them an
ambassador, who, as soon as he had accomplished his business,
was to return to England and carry with him all the information
he might have collected in Paris. That the French government
would suspect me of a design to send them a spy for the Court
of St. James. That I presumed Mr. King at that time would
not be pleased to be removed from England to France for
perpetuity or permanence. Besides, that the difficulty of com-
munication between England and France would necessarily
occasion an indefinite delay in procuring the necessary pass-
ports, and that much depended upon the promptitude and
despatch with which the negotiation should be conducted.
The gentlemen asked, why I had not nominated our minister
plenipotentiary at Berlin. Neither the remarks with which
they accompanied this question, nor the reasons which I gave
them in answer, need to be detailed to the public.
I added, " Gentlemen, I maturely considered all these things
before I nominated Mr. Murray ; and I considered another
gentleman, whom you have not mentioned, Mr. Humphreys, at
Madrid ; but the same objections of distance and delay account
in his case as well as that of Mr. Adams." The gentlemen all
agreed that there would have been no advantage in nominating
him, more than Mr. Murray.
250 CORRESPONDENCE.
The gentlemen then inquired, why I had not nominated a
commission of three or five, in preference to a single gentleman.
The answer was, that I had had a long experience of ten years
in this kind of business, had often acted in commissions with
various other gentlemen, and I had three times been commis-
sioned alone ; that I had found in general that business could
be better done by one than by many, in much less time and
with much less perplexity ; that the business to be done by Mr.
Murray would be nothing more than obedience to his instruc-
tions, and that would be performed as well by one as by three;
that the delay must be great in sending gentlemen from Ame-
rica, and the expense greatly augmented; that very much
depended upon the celerity of the enterprise.
The gentlemen thought that a commission would be more
satisfactory to the Senate and to the public. I said, although
this was not perfectly consonant to my own opinion, I could in
such a case easily give up my own to the public; and if they
advised it, I would send another message, and nominate a
commission of three ; but Mr. Murray would be one, for after
having brought his name before the public, I never would dis-
grace him by leaving him out. The gentlemen acquiesced, and
one of them, whom I took to be their chairman, was pleased
to say, "after this very enlightened explanation of the whole
business, I am perfectly satisfied." ^ The others appeared to
acquiesce, and took their leave. The next morning I sent
another message, which shall appear in my next letter.
V.
The message mentioned in my last letter was in these words.^
' The committee consisted of Messrs. Sedgwick, Bingham, Ross, Read, and
Stockton, all federalists. If the first named is the one alluded to in the text, his
own account, written to Mr. Hamilton, of this conference, which took place on
Saturday evening, varies in regard to his expression of satisfaction, as well as
in other particulars. He says, that Mr. Adams felt it his duty to insist upon the
Senate's action on the nomination of Mr. Murray. And in case of a rejection,
he would then propose the commission of three. In consequence of this, a meet-
ing of federal senators was held at the house of Mr. Bingham, probably on
Sunday evening, the 24th of February, at which it was determined to reject the
nomination. The commission of three was nominated in a message sent on Mon-
day morning. Hamilton's Works, vol. vi. p. 399.
2 See page 163 of this volume for this message.
CORRESPONDENCE. 251
To these nominations the Senate advised and consented, and
commissions were prepared. My friend, Mr. Henry, declined
on account of his age, and Governor Davie, of North Carolina,
was appointed in his place. Dmlng all this transaction, no
motion was made in the Senate to pass a resolution that a
mission to France was inexpedient. With the despatches from
Talleyrand before his eyes, I believe no member of the Senate
would have been willing to record his name in favor of such a
resolution, among the yeas and nays. The deputation of sena-
tors made no remonstrances to me against the mission, or the
diplomatic communications on which it was founded, but only
against the missionary, Mr. Murray .^
I sent an invitation to the heads of departments to assemble
in my chamber, to consult upon the instructions to be given to
our envoys. They all met me accordingly, and, in several long
evenings,^ entered into a very serious and deliberate discussion
of every article that was to be demanded and insisted on in the
proposed treaty. They were all unanimously agreed upon to
my entire satisfaction, and reduced to writing. I committed
them to the Secretary of State to be reduced into proper form,
to have a fair copy made and transmitted to me for revision,
correction, or signature, as there might be occasion.
The yellow fever was expected, and we were all obliged to
fly for our lives : myself and all my family to Quincy, and the
heads, of departments, with the public offices, to Trenton.^
I had repeatedly endeavored to impress upon the mind of the
Secretary of State the necessity of transmitting to me as soon
as possible his draught of the instructions, that they might be
finished and signed, and every thing prepared for the departure
of the envoys. I waited with much concern, expecting from
day to day to receive the instructions; but no instructions
1 Mr. Sedgwick's first letter is a curious specimen of the perplexity into which
a political partisan will sometimes be thrown, by a measure, the bearings of
which he has not taken time to understand. Hamilton's Works, vol. vi. p. 396.
'■2 A slight error. The fact is correctly stated in the original fragment. There
was one evening and one morning consultation. On the 10th of March the
points were fully discussed. They were reduced to writing, and finally agreed
upon the next day — the 11th — the same day on which Mr. Adams left Phila-
delphia. See the points as finally transmitted, in vol. viii. p. 627.
3 The offices were moved to Trenton in the latter part of August. The differ-
ence is slight, but Mr. Gibbs seems to think it material. Mr. Pickering assigns
it as a cause of the delay of the instructions. See page 23 of tliis volume.
Gibbs's Federal Administrations, vol. ii. p. 272.
252 CORRESPONDENCE.
appeared. At length, instead of them I received a letter signed
by all five of the heads of departments, earnestly entreating me
to suspend the mission I ^
I was astonished at this unexpected, this obstinate and perse-
vering opposition to a measure that appeared so clearly to me
to be so essential to the peace and prosperity of the nation, and
the honor of the goverimient, at home and abroad. I was not a
little surprised at the unanimity of the heads of departments, for
two of them had always appeared moderate and candid in rela-
tion to this mission. My instantaneous determination was to
go to Trenton, meet the gentlemen face to face, to confer with
them coolly on the subject, and convince them, or be convinced
by them, if I could. On my way, I called upon Chief Justice
Ellsworth, at his seat in Windsor, and had a conversation of
perhaps two hours ^ with him. He was perfectly candid. What-
ever should be the determination, he was ready at an hour's
warning to comply. If it was thought best to embark imme-
diately, he was ready. If it was judged more expedient to post-
pone it for a little time, though that might subject him to a
winter voyage, that danger had no "weight with him. If it was
concluded to defer it till the spring, he was willing to wait. In
this disposition I took leave of him. He gave me no intimation
that he had any thought of a journey to Trenton.^ I lodged at
Hartford, not yet purified of the yellow fever, and there I caught
something very like it, or at least almost as bad, a most violent
cold, attended with a constant fever, which rendered me for six
weeks more fit for a chamber and bed of sickness than for
uncomfortable journeys, or much labor of the head or hands.
However, I would not consent to be retarded on my journey,
1 This is not quite accurate. The instructions were sent on the 10th of Sep-
tember and received on the 14th. The letter referred to was dated the 11th,
and signed by Mr. Pickering only, but it had been approved by Messrs. Wolcott
and McHenry, and concurred in by Mr. Stoddert. It was received on the 1 7th
at night. Mr. Lee, as is stated a few lines below, was not at Trenton at the
time ; and he did not agree to the sentiments. It is curious that Mr. Hamilton,
in his pamphlet, likewise calls the letter a joint letter of the ministers. It cer-
tainly was so regarded by those of them from whom he had his information,
pp. 23 and 31 of this volume.
2 This was on October 3d. Mr. Ellsworth, in a letter written, probably to
Mr. Pickering, on the 5th October, says half an hour, according to Mr. Gibbs,
but the letter is not given. The original draught says, " a long conversation."
Gibbs's Federal Administrations, vol. ii. p. 267.
3 See his own letter, written the same day, 5th October, p. 3 7 of this volume.
CORRESPONDENCE. 253
and reacned Trenton, where Mr. Hamilton had arrived a few
hours before me. Governor Davie had been there some time.
Ill as I was, I sent for the heads of departments. Four of them
were there. The Attorney- General was gone to Virginia. Many
days ^ were employed in conferences with them, sometimes at
my own apartments, and sometimes at their offices.
The inhabitants of Trenton had been wrought up to a pitch of
political enthusiasm that surprised me. The universal opinion
appeared to be, that the first arrivals from Europe would bring
the glorious news that Louis the XVIII. w"as restored to the
throne of France, and reigning triumphantly at Versailles. Su-
warrow, at the head of his victorious Russian army, was to
have marched from Italy to Paris on one side, and Prince
Charles, at the head of an Austrian army, was to have marched
from Germany to Paris on the other, and detachments from
both armies were to march down to Havre to receive the king,
who was to be brought over by a British fleet and escorted with
flying colors to Versailles. I could scarcely believe my own
senses, when I heard such reveries. Yet the heads of depart-
ments appeared to believe them, and urge them as decisive
arguments for suspending the embarkation of our envoys till
the spring. In vain did I urge the immense distances the two
imperial armies had to march, the great number of towns and
cities in the route of both, in positions chosen with great skill,
fortified with exquisite art, defended by vast trains of heavy
ordnance, garrisoned by numerous troops of soldiers perfectly
disciplined, and animated with all the obstinacy and ardor of
the revolutionary spirit. In vain did I allege the military
maxim, which would certainly govern both Prince Charles and
Suwarrow, that is, never to leave a fortified city in the rear of
your army, in possession of your enemy; that the siege of one
town would consume the whole season ; that neither the Rus-
sians nor Austrians were, probably, provided with the mor-
tars and heavy cannon necessary for sieges. Nothing would
do — Louis XVIII. must be upon the throne of France. " Well,
suppose he is, what harm will there be in embarking our envoys ?
They will congratulate his Majesty, and if his Majesty cannot
receive them under their credentials to the French republic, he
' Six days. From the 10th to the 15th October, inclusive.
VOL. IX. 22
254 CORRESPONDENCE.
will be glad to see them in his kingdom, and assure them of his
royal protection till they can write home for fresh commissions,
and such shall be ready for them at a minute's warning." In
vain did I urge the entire change of property in France, and the
necessity the present possessors were under to defend themselves
at every sacrifice and every risk. Mr. Ellsworth had arrived
in two or three days after me. I invited him and Governor
Davie to dine with me alone, that we might converse with entire
freedom. At table, Mr. Ellsworth expressed an opinion some-
what similar to that of the heads of departments and the public
opinion at Trenton. " Is it possible. Chief Justice," said I, "that
you can seriously believe that the Bourbons are, or will be soon,
restored to the throne of France ? " " Why," said Mr. Ells-
worth, smiling, " it looks a good deal so." " I should not be afraid
to stake my life upon it, that they will not be restored in seven
years, if they ever are," was my reply. And then I entered into
a long detail of my reasons for this opinion. They would be
too tedious to enumerate here, and time has superseded the
necessity of them.
The result of the conversation was, that Mr. Davie was
decidedly for embarking immediately, as he always had been
from his first arrival, and Mr. Ellsworth declared himself satis-
fied, and willing to embark as soon as I pleased.^
Mr. Hamilton, who had been some time in town, and had
visited me several times, came at last to remonstrate against
the mission to France. I received him with great civility, as I
always had done from my first knowledge of him. I was for-
tunately in a very happy temper, and very good humor. He
went over the whole ground of the victories of Suwarrow and
Prince Charles, and the inflexible determination of the two
imperial courts, in concert with Great Britain, to restore the
house of Bourbon to their kingdom. That there was no doubt
the enterprise was already accomplished, or at least would be,
before the end of the campaign. That Mr. Pitt was determined
to restore the Bourbons. That the confidence of the nation in
1 Mr. Ellsworth seems to have immediately reported this conversation to Mr.
Pickerinji and Mr. Wolcott. Mr. Pickering gives a tiketch of it in a letter to
General Washington, of the 24th October, published in Mr. Gibbs's Work, vol. ii.
p. 280. He says that he " desired Mr. Wolcott to commit the whole recital to
writing, which he promised to do." No such paper appears in that work. Cer-
tainly it was a singular occupation for cabinet ministers.
CORRESPONDENCE. 255
Mr. Pitt was unbounded. That the nation was never so united
and determined to support Mr. Pitt and his resolution to restore
the monarchy of France. His eloquence and vehemence wrought
the little man up to a degree of heat and effervescence like that
which General Knox used to describe of his conduct in the
battle of Monmouth, and which General Lee used to call his
paroxysms of bravery, but which he said would never be of any
service to his country. I answered him in general, as I had
answered the heads of departments and Judge Ellsworth, but
to no purpose. He repeated over and over again the unalterable
resolution of Mr. Pitt and the two imperial courts, the invincible
heroism of Suwarrow and Prince Charles, and the unbounded
confidence of the British empire in Mr. Pitt, with such agitation
and violent action that I really pitied him, instead of being dis-
pleased. I only added, that I differed with him in opinion on
every point; and that instead of restoring the Bourbons, it would
not be long before England would make peace. I treated him
throughout with great mildness and civility ; but, after he took
leave, I could not help reflecting in my own mind on the total
ignorance he had betrayed of every thing in Europe, in France,
England, and elsewhere. Instead of that unbounded confidence
in Mr. Pitt, I knew that the nation had been long working up
almost to a ripeness for rebellion against Mr. Pitt, for continuing
the war. Accordingly, it was not long before Mr. Pitt was
obliged to resign, peace at Amiens was made, and Napoleon
acknowledged. Mr. Hamilton, in his most famous pamphlet,
has hinted at this conversation, and squinted at my simplicity
for expecting peace.
Under the whole, I directed the instructions to be prepared,
the heads of departments were assembled, and the instructions
deliberately considered, paragraph by paragraph, and unani-
mously approved by me and by them. Indeed, there had never
been any difference of opinion among us on any article of the
instructions.^
1 Mr. Gibbs, in his work, afBrms that the dinner, and the conversation with
]\Ir. Hamilton, took place after the prepai-ation of the instructions, and after the
order to embark was given. Perhaps it may be as well to compare with this
account the fuller one given in 1801.
"At Trenton, the form of instructions was adjusted with Mr. Adams's ministers,
and, had he wavered and been in doubt about the expediency of sending on his
ministers, he would probably have asked advice ; but he was not in doubt. On his
256 CORRESPONDENCE.
The instructions were presented to the envoys, and they were
requested to embark in the United States frigate as soon as
possible. For some cause or other in the state of the ship, they
landed in Spain, and went by land from Corunna to Paris, on
the same route which Mr. Dana and I had travelled twenty
years before, that is, in 1780. Before their arrival, a revolution
had occurred, and the consular government succeeded the Di-
rectory.
Had Mr. Murray's nomination been approved, he would pro-
bably have finished the business long before, and obtained com-
pensation for all spoliations.
In my next letter you will have the evidence of the com-
pliance of the French government with the conditions and
requisitions in my message to the Senate, nominating Mr.
Murray and others, ministers and envoys to France.
journey he had called on Mr. Ellsworth at his seat in Windsor, and had a long
conversation with him upon the subject, and heard, as he believed, all the reasons
for the suspending the sailing of the envoys for a few weeks. To do justice,
however, to Mr. Ellsworth, he did not appear decided In his opinion against
proceeding. When at Trenton, Mr. Adams had opportunities of knowing from
one and another of his ministers all the reasons they ever suggested against the
mission proceeding. He thought them Insufficient. He conversed with Mr.
Davie, who had been and continued steady in the opinion that they ought to
proceed, and declared that, in his opinion, the nation, and that part of It, espe-
cially, with which he was best acquainted, expected they Avould proceed, and would
be greatly disappointed If they did not. The change in the Directory appeared
to the President to be a mere quibble, too much like an attorney's plea in
abatement, when gravely alleged as a reason for suspending the mission. The
expected annihilation of the republic, and restoration of the royal family, appeared
extravagant, visionary, and in the highest degree Improbable ; but. if It had been
certain, it was no reason for suspending the mission, for the mission was to
France, not to individuals or forms of government. The reasons he urged in
conversation with some, if not all his ministers, and with Messrs. Ellsworth and
Davie, in support of his opinion that the republic would last several years, at
least, and that the restoration of the royal family could not be soon effected,
would take up too much time to detail. It appeared to him, that his ministers,
three of them at least, had not sufficiently considered the state of Europe, the
instability of coalitions among jealous rival powers, and, above all, the nature of
twenty-five millions of people In a mass, whose deepest passions were thoroughly
aroused and become wholly desperr^te. Nothing shall be said of the temper in
which three of his ministers were, nor of the conduct of one or two of them, at
least, from the first nomination of Mr. Murray, in endeavoring by conversations
and letters to make the measure unpopular, and to Injure the character of the
President. There are persons who might say more. No step was ever more
deliberately taken, after a full and dispassionate consideration of the whole sub-
ject, than the request to the envoys to sail by the 1st of November."
CORRESPONDENCE. 257
VII.
On the 6th of March, a letter was written by the Secretary of
State by my order, in the following words, to Mr. Murray :
No. 22. rhiladelpbia, C March, 1799.
Sir, — "I inclose a commission constituting you, in conjunc-
tion with the Chief Justice Ellsworth and Patrick Henry, Esq.,
of Virginia, envoys extraordinary and ministers plenipotentiary
to the French republic. By the President's direction, I inclose
for your information copies of his messages to the Senate, of
the 18th and 2oth of March" (it should have been the 18th and
25th of February), "by the latter of which you will see the mo-
tives inducing the nomination of a commission for the purpose
of negotiating with France, instead of resting the business
wholly with you. This will, doubtless, be agreeable, by reliev-
ing you from the weight of a sole responsibility in an affair of
such magnitude.
It is the President's desire, that you, by letter to the French
minister of foreign relations, inform him, " that Oliver Ellsworth,
Chief Justice of the United States, Patrick Henry, late Governor
of Virginia, and yourself, are appointed envoys extraordinary
and ministers plenipotentiary of the United States to the French
republic, with full powers to discuss and settle by a treaty all
controversies between the United States and France." But,
" that the two former will not embark for Europe until they
shall have received from the Executive Dnectory direct and un-
equivocal assurances, signified by their secretary of foreign
relations, that the envoys shall be received in character, to an
audience of the Directory, and that they shall enjoy all the pre-
rogatives attached to that character by the law of nations, and
that a minister or ministers of equal powers shall be appointed
and commissioned to treat with them."
The answer you shall receive to your letter, you will be
pleased to transmit to this office.
You will also be pleased to understand it to be the President's
opinion, that no more indirect and inofficial communications,
written or verbal, should be held with any persons whatever,
agents on behalf of France, on the subjects of difference between
the United States and the French republic. If the French
22* Q
258 CORRESPONDENCE.
government really desire a settlement of the existing differences,
it must take the course pointed out, unless the Executive Di-
rectory should prefer sending a minister plenipotentiary to the
United States.
I have the honor to be, very respectfully, Sir, your obedient
servant."
Timothy Pickering.
Mr. Murray obeyed these instructions by a letter in these
words : —
W^. V. MURRAY TO C. M. TALLEYRAND.
The Hague, 5 May, 1799.
Citizen Minister,
It is with the greatest pleasure that I hasten to fulfil the
instructions, which I have just had the honor to receive from the
government of the United States of America, by informing you
that the President has appointed Oliver Ellsworth, Chief .Justice
of the United States, Patrick Henry, late Governor of Virginia,
and William Vans Murray, minister resident of the United
States at the Hague, to be envoys extraordinary and ministers
plenipotentiary of the United States to the French republic,
with full powers to discuss and settle by a treaty all controver-
sies between the United States and France; but that the two
former, Mr. Ellsworth and Mr. Henry, will not embark for
Europe until they shall have received from the Executive Di-
rectory direct and unequivocal assurances, signified by their
minister of foreign relations, that the envoys shall be received
in character to an audience of the Directory, and that they shall
enjoy all the prerogatives attached to that character by the law
of nations, and that a minister or ministers of equal powers
shall be appointed and commissioned to treat with them.
I request you. Citizen Minister, to lay this subject before
your government, and as the distance is so great and the ob-
stacles so numerous in an Atlantic voyage, that you will favor
me, as speedily as possible, with the answer which is to lead to
such happy and important consequences.
Accept, Citizen Minister, the assurances of my perfect high
esteem.
W. V. Murray.
CORRESPONDENCE. 259
When Mr. Murray received the answer of the French minis-
ter, he inclosed it, with the following letter from himself, to the
Secretary of State : —
No. 75. The Hague, 7 May, 1799.
Dear Sir,
On the 4th instant, late in the evening, I had the honor to
receive your No. 22, containing the commission of envoys.
On the 5th, I addressed, precisely agreeably to your instruc-
tions, as I conceived, the inclosed letter to Mr. Talleyrand, the
minister of exterior relations. You will perceive. Sir, that I did
not think myself at liberty to go, not only not out of the com-
mas, but beyond them. In one word alone I deviated, in the
word minister, instead of Secretary of foreign relations. No
direct nor indirect and inofficial communications, written or
verbal, will be held by me with the French agents on American
affairs.
I accept the appointment which it has pleased the President
to clothe me with, under a grateful sense of the high honor
conferred upon me, so unexpectedly, by this mark of his con-
fidence. I may be allowed to say, that though I was deeply
sensible of the honor conferred by the first nomination, and shall
always, I hope, retain a most grateful recollection of it, yet,
Sir, the new modification of that nomination gave me great
pleasure, always conceiving, as I thought I did, that any nego-
tiation with France would be full of anxieties and political
perils to the envoys that should be employed by our govern-
ment. I had no wishes to be engaged in it, and no expectation
that I should be. To have a share in it, was by me unsought.
You will excuse this declaration, because I was instrumental
in certain preliminary steps relative to the advances of France,
which produced the basis of the appointment.
I sent the original of the inclosed to Mr. Talleyrand by post ;
another, a copy, to Major Mountflorence, to be handed to him ;
a third to a Mr. Griffith for Major M. in case the other failed,
to be opened by Mr. G., if Major M. should have been out of
Paris, and directed Mr. G. to follow the instructions which he
would find in the letter to Major M., which were, to deliver the
inclosed to Mr. Talleyrand, and take his letter in answer for
me, and send it to me.
260 CORRESPONDENCE.
As soon as I have the answer of the Directory, 1 shall have
the honor of transmitting copies to you, Sir, by different ways.
T am, with the greatest respect and sincere esteem, dear Sir,
faithfully your most obedient servant.
W. V. Murray.
THE IVIINISTF:R of exterior relations to W. vans MURRAY.
( Translation.')
Paris, 23 Florfeal, (12 May, 1799,)
7tli year of the French republic, one and indivisible.
I augur too well. Sir, from the eagerness you display in ful-
filling the instructions of your government, not to hasten to
answer the letter I receive from you, dated the 16th of this
month.
The Executive Directory being informed of the nomination
of Mr. Oliver Ellsworth, of Mr. Patrick Henry, and of yourself,
as envoys extraordinary and ministers plenipotentiary of the
United States to the French republic, to discuss and terminate
all differences which subsist between the two countries, sees
with pleasure that its perseverance in pacific sentiments has
kept open the way to an approaching reconciliation. It has a
long time ago manifested its intentions with respect to this
subject. Be pleased to transmit to your colleagues and accept
yourself the frank and explicit assurance that it will receive the
envoys of the United States in the oflicial character with which
they are invested, that they shall enjoy all the prerogatives
which are attached to them by the law of nations, and that one
or more ministers shall be authorized to treat with them.
It was certainly unnecessary to suffer so many months to
elapse for the mere confirmation of what I have already declared
to Mr. Gerry, and which, after his departure, I caused to be
declared to you at the Hague. I sincerely regret that your two
colleagues await this answer at such a distance. As to you.
Sir, whom it will reach in a few days, and who understand so
well the value of time, when the restoration of harmony between
two republics, whom every thing invites to friendship, is in ques-
tion, be assured that as soon as you can take in hand the object
CORRESPONDENCE. 261
of youv mission, I shall have the honor immediately to send you
passports.
Accept, Sir, the assurances of my very sincere consideration.
Ch. Mau. Talleyrand.
The foregoing documents were not published till they were
communicated to Congress, with my message of December 5th,
1799. The messages to the Senate, nominating the minister
and the envoys, were never published till now, as I remember.
I may be, however, mistaken. These papers were not published
till the mischief was done that they might have prevented, and
innumerable prejudices and errors propagated all over the na-
tion.
I have omitted two facts, which ought to have been inserted
in a former letter :
1. One is, that one of the heads of departments ^ at Trenton
was more diffident than the rest. He said he was far from
being sanguine. He had signed the letter to me, urging a post-
ponement of the mission, because he did not like to be singular;
but he wished me to decide the question according to my own
judgment and sentiments. He also showed me a letter from
the Attorney-General in Virginia,^ saying that the people ex-
pected that the envoys should proceed, and would be disap-
pointed if they did not.
2. Another fact is, that I transiently asked one of the heads
of departments, whether Ellsworth and Hamilton came all the
way from Windsor and Newark to Trenton, to convince me
that I ought to suspend the mission.
VHI.
At first I intended to encumber your paper with no docu-
ments but such as were absolutely necessary for my own vindi-
cation. But as the peace with France in 1800, was not only
an event of great importance in itself, but produced demonstra-
tions of the prejudices, passions, views, designs, and systems of
parties, more, perhaps, than any other, I hope you will allow
1 Mr. Stoddert, Secretary of the Navy.
2 Mr. Lee. The letter was addressed to Mr. Adams himself. See page 38.
262 CORRESPONDENCE.
me room for such other papers as may serve to throw light upon
this subject. At present it may not be very interesting ; but
the cause of truth and justice may hereafter be promoted by
having the facts and evidences laid together in a series. The
future policy of the nation will not be injured by it.
Besides the communications already published from the sove-
reign of the French nation, through their minister of foreign rela-
tions, their diplomatic organ at the Hague, and our minister
there, another was communicated through the same channels in
these words : —
C. M. TALLEYRAND TO M. PICHON.
Paris, 11 Fructldor, an 6. (28 August, 1798.)
( Translation.)
I see with pleasure, citizen, that the intercourse of society has
procured you some political conversations with Mr. Murray. I
entertain an esteem for that minister. Like all the men at
the head of the affairs of the United States, he has received
the impressions which the British cabinet has known how to
give against us. He thinks the measures of his government
just, and supports them ; but he possesses reason, understand-
ing, and a true attachment to his country. He is neither
French nor English ; he is ingenuously an American. I am
not at all surprised that he has appeared to you to wish sincerely
for the reconciliation of the two republics. I will, therefore,
cheerfully answer the questions you put to me on different
points, which appeared to you not to be well established in his
mind. I do not see between France and the United States any
clashing of interest, any cause of jealousy. The Americans
wish to be fishermen, sailors, manufacturers, and especially
husbandmen. In all these points of view their success is more
at the expense of England than us. Why should we be uneasy
about them? They aspire to the consolidation of their national
existence, and it is to our purpose that they should succeed. In
fact, we should have decided upon very superficial views, to
sustain their independence, if the matter was to separate them
from England merely to leave them finally insulated among
themselves, on an extensive sea-coast, weak, rivalling, and im-
poverished by each other, and torn by foreign intrigues. We
CORRESPONDENCE. 263
know that Great Britain would soon have put together, piece
by piece, those scattered shreds, and we should have done no-
thing useful for ourselves, if so miserable a chance of it were
not daily rendered more remote.
What, therefore, is the cause of the misunderstanding which,
if France did not manifest herself more wise, would henceforth
induce a violent rupture between the two republics ? Neither
incompatible interests nor projects of aggrandizement divide
them. After all, distrust alone has done the whole. The go-
vernment of the United States has thought that France wanted
to revolutionize it. France has thought that the government
of the United States wanted to throw itself into the arms of
England. It does not require much skill to divine which is the
cabinet interested in the two events producing each other, and
which invisibly puts in motion all the expedients calculated to
make them take effect. Let us open our eyes on both sides. I
am disposed to admit that the conduct of the government of the
United States may be explained by other causes than those
heretofore presumed. But let it on its part understand that the
French government, wounded as it may be, is too wise to enter-
tain the views of disturbance, which the other supposes. It
concerns a republic, founded on the system of representation, to
support and not to weaken similar establishments. The stabi-
lity of this system abroad is a necessary example at home.
France, in fine, has a double motive as a nation and as a repub-
lic, not to expose to any hazard the present existence of the
United States. Therefore it never thought of making war
against them, nor exciting civil commotions among them ; and
every contrary supposition is an insult to common sense.
These fundamental principles being established, it is natural
to ask by what fatality a good understanding was not long
since restored. It was because irritation being mingled with
distrust neither party yielded to real conciliatory inclinations.
In the United States it was supposed that the French govern-
ment was temporizing, in order to strike the blow with greater
certainty, whence resulted a crowd of measures more and more
aggravating. In France it was supposed that the government
of the United States wished only the appearances of a negotia-
tion, whence resulted a certain demand for pledges of good faith.
Let us substitute calmness for passion, confidence for suspi-
264 CORRESPONDENCE.
cions, and we shall soon agree. I used my endeavors to enter
upon a negotiation in this spirit with Mr. Gerry. My corres-
pondence with him until the day of his departure is a curious
monument of advances on my part, and of evasions on hi^. It
is wrong to think that I confined myself to vague protestations.
Among that series of official letters, which will doubtless be
published at Philadelphia, I select one of the 30th Prairial,
wherein you will see that I make very positive propositions,
without any mixture of preliminary conditions. This letter
was followed by three notes upon the articles to be discussed,
and I intended to complete the others in this manner, if Mr.
Gerry had not refused to answer thereto.
When it became necessary to abandon the idea of treating
with that envoy, who thought it important only to know how a
negotiation might thereafter be resumed, I gave him the most
solemn assurances concerning the reception that a new^ pleni-
potentiary would receive. It was far from my thoughts to
insinuate that the President should send one from the United
States, instead of investing with his powers some one who was
in Europe ; far less that the envoy should land directly in France,
instead of announcing it in a neighboring country. I wished
merely to say, that the Executive Directory was so decided
for a reconciliation, that all tampering would be superfluous;
that an act of confidence in it would excite its own. 1 should
be very badly understood, if there should be found in my ex-
pressions a restriction on the nature of the choice which the
President might make. I wished to encourage Mr. Gerry, by
testimonies of regard that his good intentions merited. Al-
though I could not dissemble that he wanted decision at a
moment when he might have easily adjusted every thing, it does
not thence follow that I designated him. I will even avow
that I think him too irresolute to be fit to hasten the conclusion
of an affair of this kind. The advantages that I prized in him
are common to all Americans, who have not manifested a pre-
dilection for England. Can it be believed that a man who
should profess a hatred or contempt of the French republic, or
should manifest himself the advocate of royalty, can inspire the
Directory with a favorable opinion of the dispositions of the
government of the United States ? I should have disguised the
truth, if I had left this matter ambiguous. It is not Avounding
CORRESPONDENCE. 265
the independence of that government, to point out to a sincere
friend of peace the shoals he ought to avoid.
As to the mediation of the Batavian republic and of Spain,
I do not know that there is any serious question about it, and
it appears to me absolutely useless. The United States might
hesitate, in the present state of things, to refer themselves to
their impartiality; and, besides, I see no subject which may not
be arranged directly.
I know that the distance which separates France and the
United States opens a vast field for incidents, and there have
been but too many of them. But the Executive Directory is
unshaken in the conduct which may best obviate them. The
excess even of provocations has deadened their effect. The
government of the United States surrounds itself with precau-
tions against an imaginary attack. To stretch the hand to
deluded friends, is what one republic owes to another, and I
cannot doubt that the dignity of that attitude will convince the
President of our pacific dispositions.
The two governments ought above all to be attentive to indi-
rect attempts to alienate them still more. Their prudence will
secure this object, and I shall cite but one example of it. You
have told Mr. Murray the truth respecting Dr. Logan. But I
perceive that on all hands it is attempted to produce a belief in
America that we are negotiating with him. On the 7th of this
month a very insidious paragraph was inserted in the " Biert
Informer It is therein intimated, that, guided by the citizen
Thomas Paine, Dr. Logan has made application to the Execu-
tive Directory in the character of secret agent. The Doctor has
complained of it bitterly to me. He has no need of justifying
himself concerning a matter, the falsity of which I know better
than anybody ; but he assured me that having once met Tho-
mas Paine, at the house of a third person, he found him so
^ejudiced againsj; the United States, and so opinionative with
respect to an influence he neither possesses among them nor us,
that he abstained from conversing any more with him. More-
over, to cut short all misunderstanding, I engaged Dr. Logan
to postpone till another time the experiments he proposes to
make on agriculture, and to return home. As to Mr. Hichborn,
of Massachusetts, I was even ignorant till now that he was in
Europe. A single word will suffice for the rest.
VOL. IX. 23
266 CORRESPONDENCE.
We want nothing but justice on the part of the United States.
We ask it, we offer it to their government. It may depend
upon the candor of the Executive Directory.
You will not doubt, citizen, that I approve of the communi-
cation which your zeal has caused you to seek with Mr. Murray,
since I enable you to resume it with official elucidations, &c.,
&c., &c.
Ch. Mau. Talleyrand.
This and all the other communications from the French
minister, heretofore published in my letter to you, were pro-
duced by my message to Congress of the 21st of June, 1798,
which was in these words : ^
IX.
Mr. Hamilton, in his famous pamphlet, says, "the conduct
pursued bore sufficiently the marks of courage and elevation
to raise the national character to an exalted height throughout
Europe.
" Much is it to be deplored that we should have been preci-
pitated from this proud eminence without necessity, without
temptation."
It is the habitual practice of our parties to affirm or deny, as
they find it to their purpose, the honor or the disgrace that is
produced in Europe by our measures. But neither party know
any thing about the matter. The truth is, that our affairs are
much less spoken or thought of in Europe than we imagine.
In all parts of Europe, but especially in France and England,
they are constantly misrepresented and misunderstood ; most
of all in England. I will venture to say, that Mr. Hamilton
wrote entirely at random, and without a glimmering of genuine
information, when he mentioned both the exaltation and preci-
pitation of our national character. To ap{>eal to the courtiers
or cabinet, or to the diplomatic corps in Europe, would be idle,
because none of them will ever read Hamilton's pamphlet or
' See page 159 for this message, ending with the following words :
" I ivill never send another minister to France toithout assurances that he loill
he received, respected, aiid honored as the representative of a great, free, power-
ful, and independent nation."
CORRESPONDENCE. 267
these papers; but I would not hesitate to submit the whole
subject to any of them. I shall take another course. Chief
Justice Ellsworth is no more. I can no longer appeal to him.
If 1 could, 1 would say no more than the truth, but it would be
more than I shall now say ; and I aver that his representation
to me was the direct reverse of Hamilton's dogmatical asser-
tions. Governor Davie still lives, and to him I appeal with
confidence. He declared to me that, to judge of the conduct
of the American government, both in their naval and other
preparations for war, and in their political and diplomatic nego-
tiations upon that occasion, a man must go to Europe, where it
was considered as the greatest demonstration of genius, firm-
ness, and wisdom. If I represent the governor's expressions in
stronger terms than those he used, I request him to correct
them.
In England, I know the Anti-Jacobin journal abused us, and
so did ]\Iacdonald, Cobbett, Smith, and every Briton in Europe
and America, who wished us at war with France and in alliance
with England. But even in England all the sober part of the
nation applauded us, and that to such a degree, that it soon
became a popular cry, " We must imitate the United States of
America, change our ministers, and make peace." Accordingly,
they did soon change their ministers, and make peace at Amiens.
Mr. Liston, whose character I respect, had run through a long
course of diplomatic experience in various courts and countries
in Europe, from a secretary of legation and charge, des affaires
to the grade of minister plenipotentiary, and thence to that of
ambassador at Constantinople, was probably a better judge
than Mr. Hamilton, who had no experience at all in any diplo-
matic station, and who, I dare to say, had read very little on
the subject of diplomatic functions, and still less of the history
of embassies, or of the printed despatches of ambassadors. Mr.
Liston, if anybody, knew what would procure honor to a nation
or government, and what disgrace, what was triumph, and what
humiliation.
Now I affirm, that the first time Mr. Liston saw me, after he
had been informed of the communications of the French Di-
rectory through Talleyrand, Mr. Pichon, and Mr. Murray, he
said to me these words : " To ivhat hu7niliations ivill not these
Frenchmen stoop to appease you? I am very sorry for it; I own,
268 CORRESPONDENCE.
I did hope they ivoidd have g-one to ivar until you^ I smiled,
but made no answer. I wanted no proof of the sincerity of this
declaration. I doubted not the sincerity of his wish more than
I did that of Mr. Canning and his associates in the Anti-Jacobin,
who, upon receiving the news of Mr. Murray's nomination,
proclaimed that jacobinism was triumphant and carrying all
before it in America. They could not, or would not, distinguish
between jacobinism and neutrality. Every thing with them
was jacobinism, except a war with France and an alliance with
Great Britain. They all panted for a war between the United
States and France as sincerely, though not so ardently, as
Alexander Hamilton.
There were not wanting insinuations and instigations to me
to confer with Mr. Liston on the subject of an alliance with
Great Britain. And Mr. Liston himself repeatedly suggested
to me, in very modest and delicate terms, however, his readi-
ness to enter into any explanations on that head. I always
waved it with as easy a politeness as I could. But my system
was determined, and had been so for more than twenty years;
that is, to enter into no alliance with any power in Europe. In
case of war with England, I would not enter into any alliance
with France. In case of war with France, I would not form any
alliance with England. We want no alliance ; we are equal to
all our own necessary wars.
" Non tali auxilio, nee defensorihus istis,
Tempus eget."
We might aid and be aided by a power at war with our ene-
my, and might concert operations from time to time; but I would
make no engagement that should tie up our hands from making
peace whenever we pleased. Had the war with France con-
tinued, I might have been drawn by the force of public opinion,
or the influence of the legislature, into an alliance with England ;
but it would have been against my own judgment and inclina-
tion.
Let me conclude this letter with an anecdote. Dr. Franklin
told me, that before his return to America from England, in
1775, he was in company, I believe at Lord Spencer's, with a
number of English noblemen, when the conversation turned
upon fables, those of ^sop. La Fontaine, Gay, Moore, &c., &c.
Some one of the company observed that he thought the subject
CORRESPONDENCE. 269
was exhausted. He did not believe that any man could now
find an animal, beast, bird, or fish, that he could work into a
new fable with any success ; and the whole company appeared
to applaud the idea, except Franklin, who was silent. The
gentleman insisted on his opinion. He said, with submission
to their lordships, he believed the subject was inexhaustible,
and that many new and instructive fables might be made out
of such materials. Can you think of any one at present? K
your lordship will furnish me a pen, ink, and paper, I believe I
can furnish your lordship with one in a few minutes. The
paper was brought, and he sat down and wrote : —
" Once upon a time, an eagle scaling round a farmer's barn,
and espying a hare, darted down upon him like a sunbeam,
seized him in his claws, and remounted with him in the air.
He soon found that he had a creature of more courage and
strength than a hare, for which, notwithstanding the keenness
of his eyesight, he had mistaken a cat. The snarling and
scrambling of the prey was very inconvenient, and, what was
worse, she had disengaged herself from his talons, grasped his
body with her four limbs, so as to stop his breath, and seized
fast hold of his throat with her teeth. Pray, said the eagle,
let go your hold, and I will release you. Very fine, said the cat,
I have no fancy to fall from this height and be crushed to death.
You have taken me up, and you shall stoop and let me down.
The eagle thought it necessary to stoop accordingly."
The moral was so applicable to England and America, that
the fable was allowed to be original, and highly applauded.
Let Hamilton say what he will, the French Directory found
it convenient to stoop and set us down on our honest ground
of neutrality and impartiality, as the English eagle did formerly,
and now does a second time.
X.
Another of my crimes, according to my great accuser, was
nominating Mr. Murray without previous consultation with any
of my ministers. To this charge I shall say but little at pre-
sent.
Tn England, the first magistrate is responsible for nothing,
23*
270 CORRESPONDENCE.
his ministers for every thing. Here, according to the practice,
if not the Constitution, the ministers are responsible for nothing,
the President for every thing. He is made to answer before the
people, not only for every thing done by his ministers, but even
for all the acts of the legislature. Witness the alien and sedi-^_
tion laws. In all great and essential measures he is bound by
"his honor and his conscience, by his oath to the Constitution,
as well as his responsibility to the public opinion of the nation,
to act his own mature and unbiased judgment, though unfor-
tunately, it may be in direct contradiction to the advice of all his
ministers. This was my situation in more than one instance.
It had been so in the nomination of Mr. Gerry ; it was afterwards
so in the pardon of Fries ; two measures that I recollect with
infinite satisfaction, and which will console me in my last hour.
In the case now in question I perfectly knew the sentiments
of all my ministers. I knew every argument they could allege,
and moreover, I knew the secret motives that governed them
better than they did themselves. I knew them then and I know
them now, believe it or disbelieve it who will, at the present
time ; hereafter, the world will be convinced of it.
I knew that if I called the heads of departments together and
asked their advice, three of them would very laconically protest
against the measure. The other two would be loath to dissent
from their brethren, and would more modestly and mildly con-
cur with them. The consequence would be, that the whole
would be instantaneously communicated to A, B, C, D, E, F,
&c., in the Senate, and G, H, I, &c., in the House of Represent-
atives ; the public and the presses would have it at once, and a
clamor raised and a prejudice propagated against the measure,
that would probably excite the Senate to put their negative on
the whole plan. If I had called the heads of department to-
gether, and asked their advice, I knew from past experience i
1 Compare with tliis the letter to the Secretary of State, of 20th October,
1798, vol. viii. p. 612, which seems never to have been answered. Also the
directions to the same officer, 15th January, 1799, to prepare a plan of a treaty,
vol. viii. p. 621, of which no notice whatever was taken. Likewise the draught
of a passage to be put into the message of December, 1798, which was not
adopted, p. 131, of this volume.
In a private letter to Mr. Adams, Mr. Stoddert protested against benig in-
cluded within the scope of this charge. He says :
" You had reason to believe that I did not hold, and never had held myself
at liberty to oppose a measure of yours, and retain my office ; and I strongly
CORRESPONDENCE. 271
that their answers would have been flat negatives. If I had
asked their reasons, they would be such arguments as Hamilton
has recorded; for he^it seerns, was their recording sccrotary.
1. The etiquette which required, according to them, that
France should send a minister to us.
2. That a negotiation with France would give offence to
Great Britain and to Russia, and probably involve us in a war
with these powers.
I had twenty times answered these arguments by saying, that
there was no such etiquette. It was true that in ancient and
more barbarous times, when nations had been inflamed by long
wars, and the people wrought up to a degree of fury on both
sides, so as to excite apprehensions that ambassadors would be
insulted or massacred by the populace, or even imprisoned, as
in Turkey, sovereigns had insisted that ambassadors should be
exchanged, and that one should be held as a hostage for the
other. It had even been insisted that a French ambassador
should embark at Calais at the same hour that an English
ambassador embarked at Dover. But these times were passed.
Nations sent ambassadors now as they pleased. Franklin and
his associates had been sent to France ; Mr. Jay had been sent
to Spain ; I had been sent to Holland ; Mr. Izard had been
commissioned to Tuscany ; Mr. W. Lee to Vienna and Berlin,
without any stipulation for sending ministers in return. We
had a minister in London three years, "without any minister
from England in return. We have had a minister at Berlin,
without any from Prussia.
As to the offence that would be taken by Great Britain, I
asked, shall we propose any thing to France, or agree to any
thing inconsistent with our treaties and pledged faith with
England ? Certainly not. What right has England, then, to
be offended ? Have we not as clear a right to make peace as
she has ? We are at war with France, at least in part. If
Britain should make peace with France, what right have we
advised you, since the nomination of Mr. Murray was made, to adhere to it,
expressing my conviction that the Senate would acquiesce. You were then
determined to adhere ; but afterwards, and perhaps more wisely, though I think
at the expense of some personal dignity, made a modification of your mes-
sage."
Mr. Adams, though well disposed to correct other things pointed out in the
same letter, declined to modify this passage.
272 CORRESPONDENCE.
to complain, provided she stipulates nothing inconsistent with
her treaty with us ?
As to Russia, what has she to do with us, or we with her?
I had confidence enough in the assurances given, firmly to be-
lieve that our envoys would be received and respected. Candi-
dates enough were ready to run the risk, and Hamilton himself
would have been very proud to have been one of them, if he
had not been Commander-in-chief of the army.
I will acknowledge, that when the terror of the power and
anger of Great Britain have been held up to me in a manner
that appears to me to be base and servile, I sometimes was
provoked to say, that in a just cause, when the essential cha-
racter and interests of the United States should be wronged by
Great Britain, I should hold her power in total contempt. It may
be said, for it has been said, that this was imprudent, and that
[ was fretted. Let it be said by whom it will, I now repeat
the same sentiment after the coolest reflection of ten years.
On the other hand, by making the nomination on my own
authority, I believed that the heads of departments would have
some discretion ; and although I knew that the British faction
would excite a clamor, and that some of the senators, represent-
atives, and heads of departments would make no exertions to
discountenance it, if they did not secretly or openly encourage
it, yet I was so perfectly convinced of the national sense, and
that the Senate felt it so strongly, that they would not dare to
negative it, even if the majority had disliked it, which I very
well knew they did not. I thought a clamor after the fact
would be much less dangerous than a clamor before it. And
so it proved in experience. A clamor there was, as I always
knew there would be, and Alexander Hamilton had a principal
underhand in exciting it.
It is well known that there are continued interviews between
the members of the Senate and the members of the House, and
the heads of departments. Eternal solicitations for nominations
to office are made in this manner. There is not an executive
measure, that members of Congress are not almost constantly
employed in pumping from the heads of departments. There
is not a legislative measure, that the heads of departments do
not intermeddle in. It really deserves consideration, whether it
would not be better that heads of departments should be mem-
CORRESPONDENCE. 273
bers of the legislature. There they would be confronted in all
things. Now, all is secrecy and darkness. Washington, I
know, was nearly as much vexed and tortured by these things
as I was, and resigned his office to get rid of them. And so
would I have done with great joy, if I could have been sure of
a successor whose sentiments were as conformable to mine, as
he knew mine were to his.
XL
Mr. Hamilton, in his pamphlet, speaking of Talleyrand's des-
patches, says, " overtures so circuitous and informal, through a
person who was not the regular organ of the French govern-
ment for making them, to a person who was not the regular
organ of the American government for receiving them, &c., were
a very inadequate basis for the institution of a new mission."
Here, again, Mr. Hamilton's total ignorance or oblivion of the
practice of our own government, as well as the constant usage
of other nations in diplomatic proceedings, appears in all its
lustre. In 1784, the Congress of the United States, the then
sovereign of our country, issued fifteen commissions, as I re-
member. If I mistake the number, Colonel Humphreys can
correct me, for he was the secretary of legation to them all, and
possesses, as I suppose, the original parchments, to John Adams,
Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson, to form commercial
treaties with all the commercial powers of Europe and the Bar-
bary States. Our instructions were to communicate these
credentials to the ambassadors of these powers at Versailles,
not to go to those courts. And we did communicate them in
this informal and circuitous manner, and received very civil
answers. We were not told, " If Congress wishes any connec-
tions with us, commercial or political, let them send ambassa-
dors directly to our courts. It is inconsistent with our dignity
to receive or pay any attention to such indirect, circuitous, and
informal overtures."
These indirect and circuitous communications, as Hamilton
calls them, are of established usage and daily practice all over
the world. Instances of them without number might be quoted ;
I shall only recite two or three.
R
274 CORRESPONDENCE.
The Baron de Thulemeier, ambassador from Frederick the
Great, King of Prussia, whose name and character Mr. Hamilton
affects to admire, wrote me a letter when I was minister pleni-
potentiary in Holland, informing me that he had received the
commands of the king, his master, to make me a visit, and
communicate somethins: to me as minister from the United
States of America, and desired to know at what hour I would
receive him.^ I wrote him in answer, that I would have the
honor of receiving him at twelve o'clock of the next day, or, if
he wished an earlier interview, I would call on him at his hotel,
at any hour he should be pleased to indicate. To this I received
no answer, but at the hour I had mentioned his Excellency
appeared at my house in the habiliments, and with the equipage
of his ministerial character. He said that the king, his master,
had ordered him to visit me and ask my opinion of a connection
and treaty between Prussia and the United States of America.
What a figure should I have made, if I had said, " This is all
circuitous and informal ; your master, if he wishes a con-
nection, commercial or political, with America, must send an
ambassador to Philadelphia, and propose it to Congress" ! Yet
Mr. Hamilton's doctrine and reasoning would have required this.
The king, however, would have expected more sense of pro-
priety, more knowledge of the intercourse of nations, and a more
rational answer, from a deputy of one of our savage tribes, or
one of the migratory hordes of Africa or Tartary. My ansv^er
was, " Be pleased. Sir, to present my most profound respects to
his Majesty, and inform him, that though I have no commission
or instructions to enter into official conferences upon the subject,
I am very sensible of the high honor done me by this communi-
cation, and have no hesitation in expressing my private opinion,
that such a connection between the United States and his Ma-
jesty's dominions would be highly honorable and advantageous,
and I have no doubt Congress would be unanimous in the same
sentiments." That without loss of time I would transmit to
them an account of this conversation, and had no doubt they
would authorize a minister to treat with his Majesty's minister.
The Baron then said, he was farther directed to ask my opinion
of a proper basis of a treaty. I answered, our treaty lately con-
cluded with Holland would, in my opinion, be such a basis.
1 See vohmie viii. p. 189.
CORRESPONDENCE. 275
Congress, when they received this information from me, did
not say, " This is all informal and indirect, from obscure and
unauthorized agents. The King of Prussia must send us an
ambassador." Yet I sent them no official act of the king; no
official letter under hand and seal from his prime minister, as
Mr. Mun-ay did to me. All was mere parol evidence, mere verbal
conversation. Yet Congress immediately sent a commission
to Adams, Franklin, and Jefferson, to treat with the king's
minister. The king sent a commission to his minister; and
a treaty was negotiated, concluded, and ratified, which now
remains among the archives and printed documents of our
country, not at all to her disgrace.
The king had previously ordered his ambassador to express
to me his entire satisfaction with the interview between his
ambassador and me ; that he had maturely examined our treaty
with Holland, and approved it as a basis of negotiation with
him.
Another instance. Mr. Weems, a young gentleman of liberal
education, from Virginia or Maryland, went to England in
hopes of obtaining holy orders in the church. He wrote a letter
to me, as American minister in Holland, though he had never
seen me, and indeed has never seen me since, bitterly complain-
ing not only of the stern refusal, but even of the rough treatment
he had received from the English bishops, and even from the
great Hurd.^ He desired to know, if he could receive ordination
from the bishops in Holland. There were no bishops in Hol-
land ; but there were Protestant bishops in Denmark. At the
first meeting of the ambassadors, I asked M. de Saint Saphorin,
the ambassador from Denmark, whether an American candidate
for the ministry could receive from the bishops in his country
Episcopal ordination ; and whether any oaths, subscriptions, or
professions of faith would be required ; and whether the arti-
cles of the Church of England were sufficiently conformable to
the faith of Denmark. ^'- Man Dieul Je rCen sais rien^' — "My
God ! " said Saint Saphorin, " I know nothing of the matter ;
but if you desire it, I will soon inform myself." I thanked him,
and should be much obliged to him. In a shorter time than I
could imagine, he came to inform me that he had written our
conversation to the prime minister of his court, who had laid it
1 See his letter, vol. viii. p. 184.
276 CORRESPONDENCE.
before the king, who had taken it into consideration in his
council, and had ordered it to be laid before the convocation,
who had unanimously determined that any American candidate
of proper qualifications and good moral character should at any
time receive ordination from any bishop in Denmark, without
taking any oath or professing any other faith, but merely sub-
scribing the articles of the Church of England. He even went
so far as to say that the king, if we desired it, would appoint a
bishop in one of his islands in the West Indies, to accommodate
American candidates. I wrote this to Mr. Weems, and it soon
procured him a more polite reception from the English clergy.
Indeed, it laid the first foundation not only of Mr. Weems's
ordination, but of the whole system of Episcopacy in the
United States.
I also wrote a history of it to Congress, who, instead of
reprimanding me, ordered me to transmit their thanks to the
King of Denmark, which I did afterwards, through another
indirect and informal channel, that of his ambassador at the
court of London.
It seems that neither St. Saphorin, nor his prime minister,
nor the king, their master, nor his council, nor the whole con-
vocation of bishops, nor our American Congress, were such
profound adepts in the law of nations and the diplomatic inter-
course of sovereigns, as Mr. Hamilton. None of them discovered
that it was inconsistent with their dignity to take notice of any
thing less formal and direct than immediate communications
from a resident ambassador.
Let me add another example. At the instigation of the
Count de Vergennes, the Swedish ambassador at Versailles
had written to his court to know whether it would be agreeable
to them to form a treaty with the United States. Receiving an
answer in the affirmative, he suggested this to Dr. Franklin,
who, upon this simple verbal insinuation, wrote an account of
it to Congress, who immediately sent him a commission. The
King of Sweden sent a commission to his ambassador at Ver-
sailles. The treaty was concluded at Paris, and afterwards
ratified by both powers. Yet no ambassador from Sweden to
the United States has ever appeared, and no minister from the
United States has ever gone to Sweden, to this day.
CORRESPONDENCE. 277
XII.
In the pamphlet it is said, that "the great alteration in public
opinion had put it completely in the power of our executive to
control the machinations of any future public agent of France."
Therefore Philadelphia was a safer scene of negotiation than
Paris.
Mr. Hamilton's erroneous conceptions of the public opinion
may be excused by the considerations that he was not a native
of the United States ; that he was born and bred in the West
Indies till he went to Scotland for education, where he spent
his time in a seminary of learning till seventeen years of age,
after which no man ever_perfectly acquired a national character;
then entered a college at New York, from whence he issued
into the army as an aid-de-camp. In these situations he could
scarcely acquire the opinions, feelings, or principles of the Ame-
rican people. His error may be excused by the further con-
sideration, that his time was chiefly spent in his pleasures, in
his electioneering visits, conferences, and correspondences, in
propagating prejudices against every man whom he thought his
superior in the public estimation, and in composing ambitious
reports upon finance, while the real business of the treasury
was done by Duer, by Wolcott, and even, for some time and in
part, by Tench Coxe.
His observation, that " France will never be without secret
agents," is true, and it is equally true that England wall always
have secret agents and emissaries too. That her " partisans
among our own citizens can much better promote her cause than
any agents she can send," is also true ; but it is at least equally
true of the partisans of Great Britain. We have seen, in the
foregoing papers, glaring and atrocious instances of the exertions
of her public agents, secret emissaries, and partisans, among our
citizens. But none have yet been mentioned that bear any
comparison, in point of guilt and arrogance, with those of all
kinds that have been exhibited within the last two or three
years.
My worthy fellow-citizens ! Our form of government, inesti-
mable as it is, exposes us, more than any other, to the insidious
intrigues and pestilent influence of foreign nations. Nothing
but our inflexible neutrality can preserve us. The public nego-
VOL. IX. 2-i
278 CORRESPONDENCE.
tiations and secret intrigues of the English and the French have
been employed for centuries in every court and country of
Europe. Look back to the history of Spain, Holland, Germany,
Russia, Sweden, Denmark, Prussia, Italy, and Turkey, for the
last hundred years. How many revolutions have been caused !
How many emperors and kings have fallen victims to the alter-
nate triumphs of parties, excited by Englishmen or Frenchmen!
And can we expect to escape the vigilant attention of politi-
cians so experienced, so keen-sighted, and so rich? If we
convince them that our attachment to neutrality is unchange-
able, they will let us alone ; but as long as a hope remains, in
either power, of seducing us to engage in war on his side and
against his enemy, we shall be torn and convulsed by their
manoeuvres.
Never was there a grosser mistake of public opinion than
that of Mr. Hamilton. The great alteration in public opinion
had not then, nor has it yet, taken place. The French republic
still existed. The French people were still considered as strug-
gling for liberty, amidst all their internal revolutions, their con-
flicts of parties, and their bloody wars against the coalitions of
European powers. Monarchy, empire, had not been suggested.
Bonaparte had appeared only as a soldier; had acted on the
public stage in no civil or political employment. A sense of
gratitude for services rendered us in our revolution, by far more
sincere and ardent than reason or justice could warrant, still
remained on the minds, not only of our republicans, but of great
numbers of our soundest federalists. Did Mr. Hamilton recol-
lect the state of our presses ; recollect the names and popular
eloquence of the editors of the opposition papers; that scoff-
ing, scorning wit, and that caustic malignity of soul, which
appeared so remarkably in all the writings of Thomas Paine
and Callender, which to the disgrace of human nature never
fails to command attention and applause ; the members of
the Senate and House who were decided against the adminis-
tration, their continual intercourse and communications with
French emissaries ; the hideous clamor against the alien law
and sedition law, both considered as levelled entirely against
the French and their friends ; and the surrender, according to
the British treaty, of the Irish murderer Nash, imposed upon
the public for Jonathan Robins ? Did he recollect the insurrec-
CORRESPONDENCE. 279
tion in Pennsylvania, the universal and perpetual inflammatory
publications against the land tax, stamp tax, coach tax, excise
law, and eight per cent, loan ? Did he never see nor hear of the
circular letters of members of- Congress from the middle and
southern States ? Did he know nothing of the biting sarcasms,
the burning rage against himself and his own army ? Did he
know nothing of a kind of journal that was published, of every
irregular act of any officer or soldier, of every military punish-
ment that was inflicted, under the appellation of the Cannibal's
Progress ? Did he see nothing of the French cockades, osten-
tatiously exhibited against the American cockades ?_
Had a French minister been seen here with his suite, he would
have been instantly informed of every source and symptom of
discontent. Almost every Frenchman upon the continent, and
they were then numerous in all the States, would have been
employed in criminating the American Government, in applaud-
ing the condescension of the French Directory, and the friendly,
conciliating disposition of the French nation. Nothing could
have been kept secret. The popular clamor for peace on any
terms would have been very difficult, if not impossible, to resist.
The multitude in Philadelphia, as it was, were almost as ripe
to pull me out of my house as they had been to dethrone
Washington in the time of Genet. Even the night of the fast-
day, the streets were crowded with multitudinous assemblies
of the people, especially that before my door, and kept in order
only, as many people thought, by a military patrol, ordered, I
believe, by the Governor of Pennsylvania.
In these circumstances it was my opinion, and it is so still, it
was infinitely better to conduct the negotiation at Paris than in
Philadelphia. But if this was and is an error, it was certainly
not of such consequence as Hamilton thought fit to represent
it. If it was an error, I humbly conceive it would have better
become Mr. Hamilton to have been silent than to endeavor to
make it unpopular, since the step was taken and irrevocable
when he wrote.
But the real truth is, he was in hopes, as well as Mr. Liston,
that the French government would neither send a minister here
nor receive one there — in short, that they would have gone to
war with us. If we had waited for a minister here, much time
would have been lost. Our little naval force under Talbot,
^80 CORRESPONDENCE.
Truxtun, Decatur, Little, &c., was doing wonders in protecting
our commerce, and in fighting and capturing French ships of
war. Some of our citizens were not wanting in irritating ex-
pressions of exultation and triumph, particularly in parading a
French national ship that had been captured by Decatur, up the
Delaware, in sight of all the citizens of Philadelphia, with the
French national colors reversed under our American flag. Ha-
milton hoped that such provocations would produce an irrecon-
cilable breach and a declaration of war. He was disappointed,
and lost the command of his army. Hinc illce lacrimce !
There were other circumstances of more serious and solid
importance, indicative of public opinion, which Mr. Hamilton,
if he had been a vigilant and sagacious statesman, could not
have overlooked. The venerable patriarchs, Pendleton and
Wythe, of Virginia, openly declaimed for peace; the former
came out in print with his name, protesting against a war with
our sister republic of France. General Heath came out with
an address to the public in Massachusetts, declaring that every
man he met was decidedly for peace. When the election was
coming on, the legislature of Massachusetts dare not trust the
people, either at large or in districts, to choose electors, but
assumed that office to themselves. In New York, the great
interest and vast bodies of the people, who are supposed to
follow or direct the two great families of Clintons and Living-
stons, aided by all the address and dexterity of Aaron Burr,
was decidedly for peace with France. In Pennsylvania, Gover-
nor M'Kean, with his majority of thirty thousand votes, or in
other words, at the head of the two vast bodies of Germans
and Irish, reenforced by great numbers of English Presbyterians,
Quakers and Anabaptists, Avere decidedly against a war with
France.
After enumerating all these symptoms of the popular bias, it
would be frivolous to enlarge upon the conversations, of which
I was informed, at taverns and insurance offices, threatening
violence to the President by pulling him out of his chair; upon
the French cockades that were everywhere paraded before my
eyes, in opposition to the black cockade ; or upon the declara-
tions and oaths, which I know were made by no small numbers,
that if we went to war with France, and the French should
come here, they would join them against the federalists and the
CORRESPONDENCE. 281
English. These things I recollect with grief, because they do
no honor to our country ; but I must say they disgrace it no
more than many more solemn actions and declarations of the
opposite party, against France and in favor of England, have
done within the last twelve months.
In these circumstances, it was the height of folly to say, as
Hamilton says, that it would have been safer to negotiate at
Philadelphia than at Paris. As to our ambassadors' being
overawed in Paris, by any finesse of politicians, or triumphs of
the French arms, we must take care to send men who are equal
to such trials. The French have not, as yet, gained any great
and unjust advantages of us by all their policy. Our envoys
were precisely instructed. Every article w^as prescribed that
was to be insisted on as an ultimatum. In a treaty they could
not depart from a punctilio. A convention they might make,
as they did, at their own risk. But the President and Senate
were under no obligation to ratify it. Had it betrayed a
single point of essential honor or interest, I would have sent
it back, as Mr. Jefferson did the treaty with England, without
laying it before the Senate. If I had been doubtful, the Senate
would have decided.
Where, then, was the danger of this negotiation ? Nowhere
but in the disturbed imagination of Alexander Hamilton. To
me only it was dangerous. To me, as a public man, it was
fatal, and that only because Alexander Hamilton was pleased
to wield it as a poisoned weapon with the express purpose of
destroyiiTg. Though I owe him no thanks for this, I most
heartily rejoice in it, because it has given me eight years, in-
comparably the happiest of my life, whereas, had I been chosen
President again, I am certain I could not have lived another
year. It was utterly impossible that I could have lived through
one year more of such labors and cares as were studiously and
maliciously accumulated upon me by the French faction and
the British faction, the former aided by the republicans, and the
latter by Alexander Hamilton and his satellites.
21'
282 CORRESPONDENCE.
XIII.
Mr. Hamilton, in his pamphlet, speaks of the anterior mission
of Messrs. Pinckney, Marshall, and Gerry, and says, "it was
resolved to make another and a more solemn experiment in the
form of a commission of three."
When I first read this sentence, I am not certain whether it
excited most of astonishment, indignation, contempt, or ridicule.
By whom was this measure resolved ? By President Washing-
ton ? Certainly not. If it had been, he would have nominated
the ministers. By the President elect, Mr. Adams ? Certainly
not. He had not been consulted. His resolutions were not
known. By whom, then, was this important resolution taken?
By Mr. Hamilton and his privy counsellors. And what had
Mr. Hamilton and his privy counsellors to do with the business?
And who were his privy counsellors ? ^
Page 22, he says, " the expediency of the step was suggested
to Mr. Adams, through a federal channel, a considerable time
before he determined to take it. He hesitated whether it could
be done, after the rejection of General Pinckney, without na-
tional debasement. The doubt was an honorable one." I
disclaim and renounce all the honor of this doubt. I never
entertained such a doubt for a moment. I might ask the
opinion of twenty persons (for I, too, "consulted much"), in
order to discover whether there was any doubt in the public
mind, or any party who were averse to such a measure, or had
any doubt about it. But I never had any hesitation myself.
This passage, like all the rest of this pamphlet, shows that it
was written from his mere imagination, from confused rumors,
or downright false information.
It is true, " the expediency of the step was suggested to. Mr.
Adams," before he took the step, and before he had time to take
it, but long after he had determined to take it. The mystery
may be revealed. I have no motive, whatever others may have,
to conceal or dissemble it.
The morning after my inauguration, ^ Mr. Fisher Ames made
1 These questions, in process of time, find their solution. See the letter
of Mr. Hamilton to T. Sedgwick, Senator from Massachusetts, 26th February,
1797. Hamiltoiis Works, vol. vi. p. 209.
2 This conversation occurred the day before the inauguration ; which is con-
CORRESPONDENCE. 283
me a visit to take leave. His period in Congress had expired,
and the delicacy of his health, the despondency of his disposi-
tion, and despair of a reelection from the increase of the opposite
party in his district, had induced him to decline to stand a can-
didate. I was no longer to have the assistance of his counsel
and eloquence, though Mr. Hamilton continued to enjoy both
till his death. Mr. Ames was no doubt one of Mr. Hamilton's
privy council, when he resolved to send a new commission of
three. Mr. Ames, with much gravity and solemnity, advised
me to institute a new mission to France. Our affairs with that
republic were in an unpleasant and dangerous situation, and
the people, in a long recess of Congress, must have some object
on which to fix their contemplation and their hopes. And he
recommended Mr. George Cabot, for the northern States, to be
one of the three, if a commission was to be sent, or alone, if
but one was to go.
I answered Mr. Ames, that the subject had almost engrossed
my attention for a long time. That I should take every thing
into serious consideration, and determine nothing suddenly;
that I should make deliberate inquiries concerning characters,
and maturely consider the qualities and qualifications of candi-
dates, before any thing was finally determined. Mr. Ames
departed for Massachusetts.^
firmed by Mr. Jefferson, in bis account of the interview that followed; also
by a letter to Mr. Gerry, vol. vili. p. 539.
1 This is an abridoment of the following account originally drawn up in 1801 :
" On the 3d or 4th of March, 1797, ]VIr. Fisher Ames, of Massachusetts, made
a visit to Mr. Adams at his lodgings before he took possession of the President's
house. He did not inform Mr. Adams, that he came at the instigation of Mr.
Hamilton ; but he said ' he waited on Mr. Adams to propose to him something
which labored much in his mind. Congress was about to rise. The recess
Avould be long. The people, in the recess of Congress, felt like sheep without
a shepherd. They had no object to which they could look up. The children
of Israel must have a pillar of fire to go before them by niojht, as well as a cloud
by day. All were anxious about the state of our affairs with France. General
Pinckney, although no doubt a worthy man, and of high character in the south-
ern States, was not known in the northern, and very little known in the middle
States. The whole American people were too little acquainted with his person
and character, to rest upon it with entire confidence and satisfaction, and he had
too little experience in the political affairs of the United States to be able, pro-
bably, to form a perfect estimate of the present views and temper of the whole
continent. He thought it expedient, therefore, to send some gentleman from
the northern States, who knew the present state of America, and in whom the
northern and middle States could fully confide ; and he named Mr. George
Cabot, of Massachusetts, as the candidate.' ]Mr. Hamilton says, ' Mr. Adams
hesitated whether it could be done after the rejection of General Pinckney,
284 CORRESPONDENCE.
I had rolled all these things in my own mind long before.
The French nation and their government were in a very um-
brageous and inflammable disposition. Much delicacy and
deliberation were necessary in the choice of characters. Most
of the prominent characters in America were as well known at
Paris as they were at Philadelphia. I had sometimes thought
of sending Mr. Madison and Mr. Hamilton, to join Mr. Pinck-
ney, in a new commission. I had thought of Mr. Ames himself,
as well as Mr. Cabot, Judge Dana, Mr. Gerry, and many others
in the northern, middle, and southern States. I thought much
of Mr. Jefferson, but had great doubt whether the Constitution
would allow me to send the Vice-President abroad. The nation
at large had assigned him a station, which I doubted whether
he had a right to abandon, or I a right to invite him to relin-
quish, though but for a time.
I had great doubts about reappointing Mr. Pinckney. He
might have been so affected with the horrors he had seen ox
heard in France, as to have uttered some expressions, which,
reported by spies to the ruling powers, might have excited pre-
judices against him, which would insure his second rejection,
and that of his colleagues too. But as I knew of no sach accu-
sation, I could not bear the thought of abandoning him. I had
not time to communicate all these reflections to Mr. Ames, and,
moreover, I had business of more importance to do. I had long
wished to avail myself and the public of the fine talents and
amiable qualities and manners of Mr. Madison. Soon after Mr.
"Ames left me, I sought and obtained an interview with Mr. Jeffer-
son. / With this gentleman I had lived on terms of intimate
without national debasement.' Here is the anachronism and confusion of ideas.
The news of the rejection of General Pinckney had not then arrived in any
part of America, and it was not till several weeks afterwards that it did arrive.
So that it is impossible that Mr. Adams could then have hesitated for that
reason. The truth is, he hesitated not a moment, for the idea had been familiar
to him for several weeks. He answered Mr. Ames in this manner ; ' He was
much obliged to Mr. Ames for his visit and advice; was very happy to find,
that the measure of sending a new minister or ministers to join General Pinck-
ney, had occurred to Mr. Ames, and had his approbation. That it was a thought
wliich he had revolved in his own mind for some time ; that he should think of
it very seriously, and, if he should ultimately resolve upon it, after he should
have considei-ed the questions whether one or two should be sent, and also con-
sidered who were the persons m.ost likely to give satisfaction everywhere, Mr.
Ames might hear more of it, and possibly before the Senate should adjourn ;
that he thought very well of Mr. Cabot, but could determine nothing at present.'
Mr. Ames returned to Massachusetts, and Mr. Adams set himself to consider
the whole subject"
CORRESPONDENCE. 285
friendship foiV_Jive-and-twenty years, had acted with him in /
dangerous times and arduous conflicts, and always found him
assiduous, laborious, and as far as I could judge, upright and
faithful. Though by this time I diftered from him in opinion by
the whole horizon concerning the practicability and success of
the French revolution, and some other points, I had no reason
to think that he differed materially from me with regard to our
national Constitution. I did not think that the rumbling noise
of party calumny ought to discourage me from consulting men
whom I knew to be attached to the interest of the nation, and
whose experience^ genius, learning, and travels had eminently
qualified them to give advice. I asked Mr. Jefferson what he
thought of another trip to Paris, and whether he thought the
Constitution and the people would be willing to spare him for a
- short time. "Are you determined to send to France?" " Yes."
" That is right," said Mr. Jefferson ; " but without considering
whether the Constitution wnll allow it or not, I am so sick of
residing in Europe, that I believe 1 shall never go there again."
I replied, " I own I have strong doubts whether it would be legal
to appoint you; but I believe no man could do the business so
well. What do you think of sending Mr. Madison ? Do you
think he would accept o^ an appointment? " " I do not know,"
said Mr. Jefferson. " Washington wanted to appoint him some
time ago, and kept the place open for him a long time ; but he
never could get him to say that he would go." Other characters
were considered, and other conversation ensued. We parted as
good friends as we had always lived ; butwe consulted very
liTtle together afterwards. Party violence soon rendered it
impracticable, or at least useless, and this party violence was
excited by Hamilton more than any other man.^
I will not take leave of Mr. Jefferson in this place, without f
declaring my opinion that the accusations against him of blind , /
devotion to France, of hostility to England, of hatred to com- i /
merce, of partiality and duplicity in his late negotiations with j
the belligerent powers, are without foundatioUy/
From Mr. Jefferson F went to one of the breads of depart-
ments,^ whom Mr. Washington had appointed, and I had no
1 Compare ]\Ir. Jefferson's account of this conference, vol. iv. of his works,
p. 501. Also pp. 538 - 539 of volume viii. of this work.
2 O. Wolcott, Jr., Secretary of the Treasury.
286 CORRESPONDENCE.
thoughts of removing. Indeed, I had then no objection to any
of the secretaries. I asked him what he thought of sending
Mr. Madison to France, with or without others. " Is it deter-
mined to send to France at all ? " " Determined ! Nothing is
determined till it is executed," smiling. "But why not? I
thought it deserved consideration." " So it does." " But sup-
pose it determined, what do you think of sending Mr. Madison ? "
" Is it determined to send Mr. Madison ? " " No ; but it de-
serves consideration." " Sending Mr. Madison will make dire
work among the passions of our parties in Congress, and out
of doors, through the States ! " "Are we forever to be overawed
and directed by party passions ? " All this conversation on my
part Avas with the most perfect civility, good humor, and indeed
familiarity ; but I found it excited a profound gloom and solemn
countenance in my companion, which after some time broke
out in, " Mr. President, we are willing to resign." Nothing
could have been more unexpected to me than this observation ;
nothing was farther from my thoughts than to give any pain or
uneasiness. I had said nothing that could possibly displease,
except pronouncing the name of Madison. I restrained my
surprise, however, and only said, I hope nobody will resign ; I
am satisfied with all the public officers.
Upon further inquiries of the other heads of departments and
of other persons, I found that party passions had so deep and
extensive roots, that I seriously doubted whether the Senate
would not negative Mr. Madison, if I should name him. Rather
than to expose him to a negative, or a doubtful contest in the
Senate, I concluded to omit him. If I had nominated Madison,
I should have nominated Hamilton with him.^ The former, I
knew, was much esteemed in France ; the latter was rather an
object of jealousy. But I thought the French would tolerate
one for the sake of the other. And I thought, too, that the
manners of the one would soon wear off the prejudices against
him, and probably make him a greater favorite than the other.
But having given up Madison, I ought to give up Hamilton
too. Whom then should I name ? I mentioned Mr. Dana and
1 In the early draught, Mr. Adams says, he " •would A-ery Avlllingly have ap-
pointed Mr. Hamilton and Mr. Madison, with one other, if he had thought it
probable Mr. Madison would accept, and that the Senate would consent, and if
he had thought it compatible with the sjiirit wliich America ought to display at
that time."
CORRESPONDENCE. 287
Mr. Gerry to the heads of departments, and to many leading
men in both houses. They all preferred Mr. Dana. But it was
evident enough to me that neither Dana nor Gerry was their
man. Dana was appointed, but refused. I then called the
heads of departments together, and proposed Mr. Gerry. All
the five 1 voices unanimously were against him. Such invete-
rate prejudice shocked me. I said nothing, but was determined
I would not be the slave of it. I knew the man infinitely bet-
ter than all of them. He was nominated and approved, and
finally saved the peace of the nation ; for he alone discovered
and furnished the evidence that X. Y. and Z. were employed
by Tajleyrand ; and he alone brought home the direct, formal,
and official assurances upon which the subsequent commission
proceeded, and peace was made.
I considered Mr. Ames's candidate, Mr. Cabot,^ as deliberately
as any of the others, and with as favorable and friendly a dis-
position towards him as any other without exception. But I
knew his character and connections were as well known in
France, particularly by Talleyrand, as Mr. Gerry's were ; and
that there were great objections against the former, and none at
all against the latter. It would be therefore inexcusable in me
to hazard the success of the mission merely to gratify the pas-
sions of a party in America, especially as I knew Mi'. Gerry, to
say the least, to be full as well qualified by his studies, his
experience, and every quality, for the service, as the other.
I afterwards nominated Mr. Cabot to be Secretary of the
Navy, a station as useful, as important, and as honorable, as the
other, and for which he was eminently qualified. But this he
refused.
No man had a greater share in propagating and diffusing
these prejudices against Mr. Gerry than Hamilton. Whether he
had formerly conceived jealousies against him as a rival candi-
date for the secretaryship of the treasury ; (for Mr. Gerry was a
financier, and had been employed for years on the committee
on the treasury in the old Congress, and a most indefatigable
1 A mistake pointed out by Mr. Stoddert, one of tlie five ministers alluded to,
but bis office bad not been created in Marcb, 1797. Mr. Adams promised to
correct it in any later publication of tbese papers, but none has taken place
until now.
2 Or rather nominated by Mr. Hamilton, not only through Mr. Ames, but
Mr. Pickering and Mr. Wolcott. Hamillon's Works, vol. vi. pp. 214, 218, 230. "
288 CORRESPONDENCE.
member too; that committee had laid the foundation for the
present system of the treasury, and had organized it ahiiost as
well, though they had not the assistance of clerks and other
conveniences as at present ; any man who will look into the
journals of the old Congress, may see the organization and the
daily labors and reports of that committee, and may form some
judgment of the talents and services of Mr. Gerry in that de-
partment; I knew that the officers of the treasury, in Hamilton's
time, dreaded to see him rise in the House upon any question
of finance, because they said he was a man of so much influence
that they always feared he would discover some error or carry
some point against them) ; or whether he feared that Mr. Gerry
would be President of the United States before him, I know
not.^ He was not alone, however. His friends among the heads,
of departments, and their correspondents in Boston, New York,
and Philadelphia, sympathized with him very cordially in his
hatred of Gerry, and of every other man who had labored and
suffered early in the revolution.
This preference of Mr. Gerry to Mr. Cabot was my first mor-
tal offence against my sovereign heads of departments and their
disciples in all the States. It never was or has been forgiven
me by those who call themselves, or are called by others, " the
leading men " among the federalists.
Mr. Hamilton says, "After the rejection of Mr. Pinckney by
the government of France, immediately after the instalment of
Mr. Adams as President,^ and long before the measure was
taken, I urged a member of Congress, then high in the confi-
dence of the President, to propose to him the immediate appoint-
ment of three commissioners, of whom Mr. Jefferson or Mr.
Madison to be one, to make another attempt to negotiate."
I will relate all that I can recollect relative to this subject.
Mr. Tracy, of Connecticut, who indeed was always in my con-
fidence, came to me, I believe, at the opening of the special
session of Congress, which I called soon after my inauguration,
^ This is regarded as very unjust bj^^Mr. Gibbs. But it is deserving of parti-
cular notice that no leading public man of the country, in any way of rival
powers, receives aid to his reputation from the publication that has been made
of Mr. Hamilton's writings.
2 The anaclironism here, so far as the first event can be supposed to have had
any share in Mr. Hamilton's action at the time here specified, is evident. Mr.
Pinckney's letter of the 1st of February, notifying his rejection, was not re-
ceived in America until the niontli of April,
CORRESPONDENCE. 289
and produced a long, elaborate letter from Mr. Hamilton, con-
taining a whole system of instruction for the conduct of the
President, the Senate, and the House of Representatives. I
read it very deliberately, and really thought the man was in a
delkium. It appeared to me a very extraordinary instance of
volunteer empiricism thus to prescribe for a President, Senate,
and House of Representatives, all desperately sick and in a state
of deplorable debility, without being called. And when I ma-
turely considered the contents of the letter, my surprise was
increased. I despised and detested the letter too much to take
a copy of it, which I now regret. This letter is still in being,
and I doubt not many copies of it are extant. I most earnestly
request any gentleman who possesses one, to publish it. That
letter, though it had no influence with me, had so much with
both houses of Congress as to lay the foundation of the over-
throw of the federal party, and of the revolution that followed
four years afterwards. I will endeavor to recollect as much of
the contents of it as I can, and if I am incorrect in any point,
those who possess the letter can, by the publication of it, easily
set all right.
It began by a dissertation on the extraordinarily critical situa-
tion of the United States.
It recommended a new mission to France of three commis-
sioners, Mr. Jefferson or Mr. Madison to be one.
It recommended the raising an army of fifty thousand men,
ten thousand of them to be cavahy ; an army of great im-
portance in so extensive a country, vulnerable at so many
points on the frontiers, and so accessible in so many places by
sea.
It recommended an alien and sedition law.
It recommended an invigoration of the treasury, by seizing
on all the taxable articles not yet taxed by the government.
And lastly,
It recommended a national Fast, not only on account of the
intrinsic propriety of it, but because we should be very unskilful
if we neglected to avail ourselves of the religious feelings of the
people in a crisis so difficult and dangerous.
There might be more, but these are all that I now recollect.
Mr. Hamilton's imagination was always haunted by that
VOL. IX. 25 s
290 CORRESPONDENCE.
hideous monster or phantom, so often called a crisis, and which
so often produces imprudent measures.^
How it happened that Mr. Hamilton's contemplations coin-
cided so exactly with mine, as to think of Mr. Jefterson or Mr.
Madison for envoy to France, it may be more difficult to ex-
plain. But let it be considered that this letter was written long
after my conversation with Mr. Jefterson, concerning himself
and Ml". Madison, which was the morning after my inaugura-
tion;^ that I had communicated that conversation to one or
more of the heads of departments the same morning. It is
probable, therefore, that Mr. Hamilton received hints from some
of his correspondents that I had thought of Madison and Ha-
milton, and that he was not displeased with the idea.^ I asked
one of the heads of departments, how he could account for
Hamilton's recommending Jefierson or Madison. " Why," said
the gentleman, " I suppose Hamilton is weary of his prac-
tice as an attorney, at New York, and is willing to enter into
some other employment." Mr. Hamilton, however, might
thank those who had been his warmest friends for his disap-
pointment ; for, had it not been for their opposition to Madison,
I should have appointed him and Hamilton.
The army of fifty thousand men, ten thousand of them to be
horse, appeared to me to be one of the wildest extravagances
of a knight-errant. It proved to me that Mr. Hamilton knew
no more of the sentiments and feelings of the people of Ame-
rica, than he did of those of the inhabitants of one of the
planets. Such an army without an eilemy to combat, would
have raised a rebellion in every State in the Union. The very
idea of the expense of it would have turned President, Senate,
and House out of doors. I adopted none of these chimeras
into my speech, and only recommended the raising of a few
regiments of artillery to garrison the fortifications of the most
exposed places. Yet such was the influence of Mr. Hamilton
in Congress, that, without any recommendation from the Presi-
dent, they passed a bill to raise an army, not a large one,
indeed, but enough to overturn the then Federal government.
1 See Sparks's Life of Gouverneur Morris. G. Morris to Aaron Ogden, vol. ill.
p. 216-17.
2 The morning before. Mr. Wolcott is the head of department alluded to.
3 This is not just to Mr. Hamilton, who certainly had suggested this mission
as early as February, 1797, to Mr. Sedgwick.
CORRESPONDENCE. 291
Nor did I adopt his idea of an alien or sedition law. I re-
commended no such thing in my speech. Congress, however,
adopted both these measures. I knew there was need enough
of both, and therefore I consented to them. But as they were
then considered as war measures, and intended altogether
against the advocates of the French and peace with France, I
w^as apprehensive that a hurricane of clamor would be raised
against them, as in truth there was, even more fierce and vio-
lent than I had anticipated.
Seizing on all the taxable articles not yet taxed, to support
an army of fifty thousand men, at a time when so many tax
laws, already enacted, were unexecuted in so many States, and
when insurrections and rebellions had already been excited in
Pennsylvania, on account of taxes, appeared to me altogether
desperate, altogether delirious.^
I wanted no admonition from Mr. Hamilton to institute a
national fast. I had determined on this measure long enough
before Mr. Hamilton's letter was written. And here let me say,
with great sincerity, that 1 think there is nothing upon this
earth more sublime and affecting than the idea of a great nation
all on their knees at once before their God, acknowledging their
faults and imploring his blessing and protection, when the pros-
pect before them threatens great danger and calamity. It can
scarcely fail to have a favorable effect on their morals in gene-
ral, or to inspire them with warlike virtues in particular. When
most, if not all of the religious sects in the nation, hold such fasts
among themselves, I never could see the force of the objections
against making them, on great and extraordinary occasions,
national ; unless it be the jealousy of the separate States, lest
the general government should become too national. Those
however, who differ from me in opinion on this point, have as
good a right to their judgment as I have to mine, and I shall
submit mine to the general will.
In fine, Mr. Hamilton, in the passage I have been comment-
ing upon, in this letter, has let out facts which, if he had pos-
sessed a grain of common sense, he would have wished should
be forever concealed. I should never have revealed or explained
them, if he and his partisans had not compelled me.
^ See Mr. Hamilton's plan, in his letter to O. Wolcott. Works, vol. vi. pp.
252-254.
292 CORRESPONDENCE.
XIV.
In page 26, is a strain of Jlimsy jant, as silly as it is indecent.
" The supplement to the declaration was a blamable excess.
It waved the point of honor, which after two rejections of our
ministers required that the next mission should proceed from
France."
Where did he find this point of honor? If any such point
had existed, it had its full force against the second mission ; and
its principal force consisted in the formal declaration of the*.
Directory, that it " never would receive another minister pleni-
potentiary without apologies for the President's speeches and
answers to addresses." If we had a right to wave this point of
honor in one instance, we had in two^ eiipecially as one member
of the second mission was the same man who had been rejected
in the first. But after the explicit retraction of the declaration
that they would not receive a minister without apologies, the
point of honor was completely done away. To give them an
opportunity of retracting that declaration, I declared, in my
message to Congress, that I would not send another minister to
France till this declaration was retracted by assurances that he
should be received in character. They embraced the opportu-
nity cordially, when they might have avoided the humiliation
by sending a minister here. And whatever Hamilton's opinion
might be, I knew that they might have negotiated more to their
advantage here than in Paris. Hamilton's fingers had not the
tact, or tactility, if you like the word better, of the public pulse.
He argues the probability that France would have sent a
minister here, from the fact that she did afterwards " stifle her
resentment, and invite the renewal of negotiation." I know
not whether this is an example of Mr. Hamilton's "analysis
of investigation" or not. It is an argument a posteriori. It
is reasoning upward or backw^ard.
These invitations were not known nor made, when I pledged
myself, by implication at least, to send a minister, when such
invitations should be made. When they were made, I con-
sidered my own honor and the honor of the government com-
mitted. And I have not a doubt that Hamilton thought so
too ; and that one of his principal vexations was, that neither
himself nor his privy counsellors could have influence enough
CORRESPONDENCE. 293
with me to persuade or intimidate me to disgrace myself in the
eyes of the people of America and the world by violating my
parole.
This he might think would assist him in his caucuses at New
York and Philadelphia, where the honor, not only of every mem-
ber, but of every State and every elector, was to be pledged, to
give an equal vote for Pinckney and Adams, that the choice of
President should be left to the House of Representatives, whose
members, on the day of election, or the day before, were to be
furnished with this pamphlet, spick and span, to make sure of
the sacrifice of Adams. But more of this hereafter.
In the mean time, what reasons had we to expect that the
French government would send a minister here ? Such an idea
had been whispered in private conversation, perhaps, by Dr.
Logan and some others ; but we had not a color of official
information to that eflect, that I remember. What motives had
the French to send a minister ? They had committed depreda-
jtions upon pu,r.. commerce, to the amount, it has been said, of
twenty millions of dollars. Would the Directory have been
animated with any great zeal to send an ambassador to offer
us compensation for these spoliations, at a time when they were
driven to their wit's end to find revenues and resources to carry
on the w^ar in Europe, and break the confederations against
them ?
We had declared the treaty of alliance, and all treaties be-
tween France and the United States, null and void. Do we
suppose the French government would have been in haste to
send an ambassador to offer us a solemn revocation, by treaty,
of all former treaties ? What urgent motive could the French
have to be in haste to send a minister? They could not be
apprehensive that we should send an army to Europe to con-
quer France, or assist her enemies. We had no naval power
sufficient to combat their navy in Europe, which was then far
from being reduced as it has been since. They had no com-
merce or mercantile navigation, upon which our little navy or
privateers could have made reprisals.
There is but one motive that I can imagine should have sti-
mulated them very much, and that is, the apprehension that we
might enter into an alliance offensive and defensive with Great
Britain. This they might have considered as a serious afiair
•>o'
S94 CORRESPONDENCE.
to them in a course of time, though they might not fear any
very immediate harm from it. But I doubt not the French had
information from a thousand emissaries, and Talleyrand knew
from personal observation in various parts of America, and Ha-
milton must have known, if he had any feeling of the popular
pulse, that a vast majority of the people of America dreaded an
alliance with Great Britain more than they did a war with
France. It would have taken a long time, it would have
required a long and bloody war with France, and a violent
exasperation of the public mind, to have reconciled the people
to any such measure. No, Hamilton and his associates could
not have seriously believed that the French would soon send a
minister here. If they had not, or if they had delayed it, Ha-
milton would have continued at the head of his army. Con-
tinual provocations and irritations would have taken place
between the two nations, till one or the other would have de-
clared war. In the mean time, it was my opinion then, and has
been ever since, that the two parties in the United States would
have broken out into a civil war ; a majority of all the States
to the southward of Hudson River, united with nearly half New
England, would have raised an army under Aaron Burr; a
majority of New England might have raised another under Ha-
milton. Burr would have beaten Hamilton to pieces, and what
would have followed next, let the prophets foretell. But such
would have been the result of Hamilton's " enterprises of great
pith and moment." I say this would probably have been the
course and result of things, had a majority of New England
continued to be attached to Hamilton, his men and measures.
But I am far from believing this. On the contrary, had not
our envoys proceeded, had not the people expected a peace with
France from that negotiation. New England herself, at the
elections of 1800, would have turned out Hamilton's whole
party, and united with the southern and middle States in bring-
ing in men who might have made peace on much less advan-
tageous terms.
And now, let the world judge who "consulted much," who
" pondered much," who " resolved slowly," and who "resolved
surely."
CORRESPONDENCE. 295
XV.
Mr. Hamilton acknowledges, that "the President had pledged
himself in his speech" (he should have said in his message) "to
send a minister, if satisfactory assurances of a proper reception
were given." Notwithstanding this, Mr. Hamilton, and all his
confidential friends, exerted their utmost art and most strenuous
endeavors to prevail on the President to violate this pledge.
What can any man think of the disposition of these men
towards the personal or official character of the President, but
that they were secretly, if not avowedly, his most determined
and most venomous enemies ? When the measure had been
solemnly, irrevocably determined, and could not be recalled nor
delayed without indelible dishonor, I own I was astonished, I
was grieved, I was afflicted, to see such artificial schemes em-
ployed, such delays studied, such embarrassments thrown in the
way, by men who were, or at least ought to have been, my
bosom friends.
This was a point of honor indeed ; not such a stupid, fantasti-
cal point of honor as that which Mr. Hamilton maintains with
so much fanaticism and so much folly ; but a point of honor in
which my moral character was involved as well as the public
faith of the nation. Hamilton's point of honor was such as one
of those Irish duellists, who love fighting better than feasting,
might have made a pretext for sending a challenge; and however
conformable it might be to Hamilton's manner of thinking, it
was altogether inconsistent with the moral, religious, and poli-
tical character of the people of America. It was such a point
of honor as a Machiavelian or a Jesuit might have made a
pretext for a war. It was such a point of honor as a Roman
senate, in the most corrupt days of that republic, might have
made a pretext for involving the nation in a foreign war, when
patrician monopolies of land, and patrician usury at twelve per
cent, a month, had excited the plebeian debtors to the crisis
of a civil war. But the American people were not Roman
plebeians. They were not to be deceived by such thin dis-
guises.
Surely, those who have lately censured Mr. Jefferson and Mr.
Madison, for insisting on knowing the satisfaction which was
to be given for the outrage on the Chesapeake, before they
296 CORRESPONDENCE.
revoked a certain proclamation, can never blame me for not
insisting on a point that was no point of honor at all.
Mr. Hamilton says, " When the President pledged himself in
his speech" (he should have said his message) "to send a minis-
ter, if satisfactory assurances of a proper reception were given,
he must have been understood to mean such as w^ere direct and
official, not such as were both informal and destitute of a compe-
tent sanction^
The words "direct and indirect," "official and inofficial,"
" formal and informal," " competent sanction," &c., appear to
have seized this gentleman's mind, and to have rolled and
tumbled in it till they had produced an entire confusion of his
understanding.
He here supposes that I did not understand my own message,
and patriotically undertakes to expound it both for me and the
public. According to his metaphysics, 1 meant, by assurances
of a proper reception, assurances direct and official, not such as
were informal. Let me ask, what more formal or official assur-
ances could have been given than Talleyrand's letters ? What
more formal, official, or direct, than Mr. Gerry's letters ? If I
understand Mr. Hamilton, he must have meant to say that my
message demanded an ambassador to be sent directly from the
Directory to me, for the express purpose of assuring me that
they would receive a minister plenipotentiary from me. This,
instead of being my meaning, was directly the reverse of it.
From first to last I had refused to be taken in this snare. I had
always refused to demand that a minister should be sent here
/^ » first, though I had declared explicitly enough in my speech, that
a French minister, if sent, should be received. I had always
insisted that both the doors of negotiation should be held open.
And as I have already said, I now repeat, that I preferred to
send a minister rather than to receive one ; not only for the
reasons explained in a former letter, but because I thought the
amende honorable ought to be made at Paris, where the offence
was given ; where it would be known and observed by all Eu-
rope ; whereas, if it had been made at Philadelphia, little notice
would have been taken of it by any part of the world.
I am somewhat disappointed in not finding in this pamphlet
the word "obscure" applied to Mr. Pichon, because the news-
papers in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, written by Mr.
r
CORRESPONDENCE. 297
Hamilton's coadjutors and fellow-laborers in the same field of
scandal, had profusely scattered their dull sarcasms on the
obscurity of the agent or agents at the Hague. Mr. Pichon
obscure I A secretary of legation and charge des affaires ob-
scure, especially in the absence of his ambassador! The office
of secretary of legation is an object of ambition and desire to
many of the first scientific and literary characters in Europe.
The place is worth about a thousand guineas a year, and aftbrds
a fine opportunity and great advantages for travel, and is , com-
monly a sure road to promotion. These secretaries are almost
always men of science, letters, and business. They are often
more relied upon than the ambassadors themselves for the sub-
stantial part of business. Ambassadors are often chosen for
their birth, rank, title, riches, beauty, eleganc^e of manners, or
good humor. They are intended to do honor to their sovereigns
by their appearance and representation. Secretaries of legation
are selected for their science, learning, talents, industry, and
habits of business. I doubt not Mr. Locke or Sir Isaac Newton
in their younger days would have thought themselves fortunate
to have been offered such a place. Would these have been
called obscure ? Was Matthew Prior or David Hume obscure ?
Yet both of them were secretaries of legation I
Such reflections as these, which were thrown upon Mr.
Pichon, might impose upon a people who knew no better than
the wnriters, but must have been despised by every man who
knew any thing of the world.
Had Talleyrand sent his letters to General Washington to
be communicated to me, had he sent them directly to my Secre-
tary of State, had he sent them to the Spanish minister to be
by him communicated to the Secretary of State, or to the
Dutch minister for the same purpose, I do not say that I would
have nominated a minister in consequence of them ; nor will I
say that I would not. There is no need to determine this ques-
tion, because, in fact, the utmost rigor of diplomatic etiquette
was observed. But I will say, that my message demanded
nothing but evidence to convince my own mind and give satis-
faction to the Senate and the public, that a minister would be
received. And if such evidence had arrived to me in any man-
ner that would leave no doubt in the public mind, I would not
have sacrificed the national neutrality to any diplomatic tram-
mels or shackles whatever.
298 CORRESPONDENCE.
XVL
In page 26, Mr. Hamilton says, that the mission •' could
hardly fail to injure our interests with other countries."
This is another of those phantoms which he had conjured up
to terrify minds and nerves as weak as his own. It was a com-
monplace theme of discourse, which, no doubt, the British fac-
tion very efficaciously assisted him in propagating. I know
it made impression on some, from whose lips I too often heard
it, and from whom I expected more sense and firmness. It
appeared to me so mean, servile, and timorous, that I own I did
not always hear it with patience.
Which were those other countries ? They could not be Spain,
Holland, or any countries in the north or south of Europe which
were in alliance with France or under her obedience. They
could be only England, Russia, and Sweden, for we had nothing
to do with any but maritime powers. And what interest of
ours could be injured with any of these powers ? Would any
of these powers make war upon us, and sacrifice the benefits
they received from our commerce, because we made peace with
France, asserted and maintained our impartial neutrality, and
stipulated nothing inconsistent with their rights, honor, or dig-
nity? If such chimerical fears as these were to govern our
conduct, it was idle to talk of our independence. We might as
well petition the king and parliament of Great Britain to take
us again under their gracious protection.
In page 36, he says, I " might secretly and confidentially have
nominated one or more of our ministers actually abroad for the
purpose of treating with France ; with eventual instructions
predicated upon appearances of approaching peace."
Mr. Hamilton had entirely forgot the Constitution of the
United States. All nominations must be made to the Senate,
and if the President requests, and the Senate enjoins secrecy,
secrecy will not be kept. Stephens Thompson Mason was
then a member of the Senate ; and if he had not been, there
were twenty other means of communicating the thing to the
public. Had secrecy been requested and enjoined when Mr.
Murray was nominated, every man whose emulation was mor-
tified would have had the secret in three hours. But had the
secret been kept, Mr. Murray must have gone to Paris with his
CORRESPONDENCE. 299
full powers, or must have communicated them to Mr. Pichon ;
the French government must have appointed a minister to treat
with him; their full powers must have been exchanged; neither
the French government nor their ministers would have kept it
secret. And why all this cunning? That we might not give
umbrage to England. This very motive, if there had been any
thing in it, \vould have induced the French to proclaim it to all
Europe. In truth, such a sneaking idea never entered my brain,
and if it had, I would have spurned it as unworthy a moment's
consideration. Besides, this would have been the very indirect,
circuitous mode that Mr. Hamilton so deeply deplores.
In page 37, another instance is given of my jealousy and
suspicious disposition. The most open, unsuspicious man alive
is accused of excessive suspcionj
I transiently asked one of the heads of departments, whether
Ellsworth and Hamilton had come all the way from Windsor
and New York to persuade me to countermand the mission.
How came Mr. Hamilton to be informed of this ? ^
I know of no motive of Mr. Ellsworth's journey. However,
I have already acknowledged that Mr. Ellsw^orth's conduct was
perfectly proper.^ He urged no influence or argument for
counteracting or postponing the mission.
Unsuspicious as I was, I could not resist the evidence of my
senses. Hamilton, unasked, had volunteered his influence with
all the arguments his genius could furnish, all the eloquence
he possessed, and aU the vehemence of action his feeble frame
could exert. He had only betrayed his want of information,
and his ardent zeal to induce me to break my word and violate
the faith of the government. I know of no business he had at
Trenton. Indeed I knew, that in strict propriety he had no
right to come to Trenton at all without my leave. He was
stationed at Newark, in the command of his division of the
army, where he ought to have been employed in accommodat-
ing, disciplining, and teaching tactics to his troops, if he had
' The question is now answered. The cabinet member disclosed it. Gibbs's
Federal Administrations, vol. ii. pp. 397, 422.
2 In the first drauj^ht is the following addition, —
" Mr. Adams never suspected him to be in combination with Mr. Hamilton to
endeavor to inlluence him in the affair of the mission."
There is reason to believe that he was in combination at least with Mr.
Pickering and Mr. Wolcott, ii" not Mr. Hamilton.
300 CORRESPONDENCE.
been capable of it. He wisely left these things to another
officer, who understood them better, but whom he hated for that
very reason.
I have no more to say upon this great subject. Indeed, I am
weary of exposing puerilities that would disgrace the awkward-
cst boy at college.
XVII.
Mr. Hamilton says, my "conduct in the office of President
was a heterogeneous compound of right and wrong, of wis-
dom and error." As at that time, in my opinion, his principal
rule of right and wrong, of wisdom and error, was his own
ambition and indelicate pleasures, I despise his censure, and
should consider his approbation as a satire on my administra-
tion.
" The outset," he says, "was distinguished by a speech which
his friends lamented as temporizing. It had the air of a lure
for the favor of his opponents at the expense of his sincerity."
Until I read this, I never heard one objection to that speech ;
and I have never heard another since, except in a letter from a
lady, who said she did not like it, because there was but one
period in it, and that period was too long. I fully agreed to
that lady's opinion, and now thank her for her criticism. Since
that time I have never heard nor read, except in Wood's His-
tory, any objection or criticism.
That address was dictated by the same spirit which produced
my conference the next day with Mr. Jefferson, in which I pro-
posed to him the idea of sending him to France, and the more
serious thought of nominating Mr. Madison. It sprung from a
very serious apprehension of danger to our country, and a sense
of injustice to individuals, from that arbitrary and exclusive
principle of faction which confines all employments and promo-
tions to its own favorites. There is a distinction founded in
truth and nature, between party and faction. The former is
founded in principle and system, concerning the public good ;
the latter in private interest and passions. An honest party
man will never exclude talents and virtues, and qualities emi-
nently useful to the public, merely on account of a difference in
CORRESPONDENCE. 301
opinion. A factious man will exclude every man alike, saint
or sinner, who will not be a blind, passive tool. If I had been
allowed to follow my own ideas, Hamilton and Burr, in my
opinion, wdth submission to Divine Providence, would have
been alive at this hour; General Muhlenberg, of Pennsylvania,
would have been a Brigadier, under Hamilton, in the army, as
long as it lasted ; and the great body of Germans in Pennsyl-
vania, instead of being disgraced with imputations of rebellion,
would have been good friends of government. I have not
room to develop all this at present.
But I soon found myself shackled. The heads of depart-
ments were exclusive patriots. I could not name a man who
was not devoted to Hamilton, without kindling a fire.^ The
Senate was now decidedly federal. Daring President Washing-
ton's whole administration of eight years, his authority in the
Senate was extremely weak. The Senate was equally divided
in all great constitutional questions, and in all great questions
of foreign relations ; and such as were the most sharply con-
tested were brought to my decision as Vice-President. When
I was elected, the States had been pleased to make an entire
change in the Senate. Two thirds of that honorable body were
now decidedly federal. And prosperity had its usual effect on
federal minds. It made them confident and presumptuous. I
soon found that if I had not the previous consent of the heads
of departments, and the approbation of Mr. Hamilton, I run the
utmost risk of a dead negative in the Senate. One such nega-
tive, at least, I had, after a very formal and a very uncivil
remonstrance of one of their large, unconstitutional committees
in secret.
I have great reason to believe, thai Mr._JejEferson came into
office with the same spirit that I did, that is, with a sincere
desire of conciliating parties, as far as he possibly could, con-
1 Mr. Stoddert, in a private letter, remonstrated against being classed in this
manner. He expresses himself thus respecting Hamilton :
"As to General Hamilton, I scarcely knew him ; and perhaps my crime as to
him was, that though believing highly of the brilliancy of his talents, and of his
sincere patriotism and honorable principles, I never entertained a very exalted
opinion of his discretion or the soUdity of his judgment, and always thought it
an unfortunate circumstance for the federal party, and of course, for the country,
(for I believe the views of that party have always been directed to tlie best
interests of the country) that the opinions of this gentleman were deemed so
oracular."
Mr. Stoddert did not become Secretary of the Navy until June, 1798.
VOL. IX. 26
302 CORRESPONDENCE.
sistently with his principles. But he soon found, as I did, that
the Senate had a decided majority of republicans, five or six to
one, a much greater majority than there was in my time of
federalists, which was never more than two to one.
In the House of Representatives, in Mr. Washington's time,
the majority of federalists was very small. In my time, it was
somewhat larger, but still small. In Mr. Jefferson's time, the
majority of republicans was immense, two or three, or four, to
one. Consciousness of this strength had the same effect upon
republicans as it had upon the federalists in my time. It made
them confident, exclusive, and presumptuous. Mr. Jefferson
found it impossible, as I did, to follow his own inclination on
many occasions.
It may be thought presumption in me to impute errors to
the nation ; but, as I have never concealed from the people any
truth which it was important to them to know, nor any opinion
of my own, which was material in public affairs, I hope to be
excused if I suggest, that the general sentiment in most parts
of the continent, that all the danger to liberty arises from the
executive power, and that the President's office cannot be too
much restrained, is an error.
Corruption in almost all free governments has begun and
been first introduced in the legislature. When any portion of
executive power has been lodged in popular or aristocratical
assemblies, it has seldom, if ever, failed to introduce intrigue.
The executive powers lodged in the Senate are the most dan-
gerous to the Constitution, and to liberty, of all the powers in it.^
The people, then, ought to consider the President's office as the
indispensable guardian of their rights. I have ever, therefore,
been of opinion, that the electors of President ought to be
chosen by the people at large. The people cannot be too care-
ful in the choice of their Presidents ; but when they have chosen
them, they ought to expect that they will act their own inde-
pendent judgments, and not be wheedled nor intimidated by
factious combinations of senators, representatives, heads of de-
partments, or military officers.
The exclusive principle which has been adopted and too
openly avowed by both our great divisions, when the pendulum
^ The tendencies of the present day render this prediction worthy to be kept
in mind.
CORRESPONDENCE. 303
has swung to their side, is a principle of faction, and not of
honest party. It is intolerance ! It is despotism ! It destroys the
freedom of the press ! the freedom of elections ! the freedom of
debate ! the freedom of deliberation ! the freedom of private
judgment! And as long as the Senate shall be determined to
negative all but their own party, the President can have no will
or judgment of his own. I most earnestly entreat all parties to
reconsider their resolutions on this subject.
XVIII.
In page 29, Mr. Hamilton says, " When an ordinary man
dreams himself to be a Frederick," &c.
To this I shall make but a short answer. When a Miss of
the street shall print a pamphlet in London, and call the Queen
of England an ordinary woman who dreams herself a Catharine
of Russia, no Englishman will have the less esteem for his queen
for that impudent libel.
There is something in the 24th page of a graver complexion.
It is said, that " the session which ensued the promulgation of
the despatches of our commissioners was about to commence."
This was the session of 1798. " Mr. Adams arrived at Phila-
delphia. The tone of his mind seemed to have been raised."
Let me ask a candid public, how did Mr. Hamilton know any
thing of the tone of Mr. Adams's mind, either before or at that
conference? To make the comparison, he must have known
the state of Mr. Adams's mind at both these periods. He had
never conversed with Mr. Adams before, nor was he present at
that conference. Who was the musician that took the pitch of
Mr. Adams's mind, at the two moments here compared to-
gether? And what was the musical instrument, or whose
exquisite car was it, that ascertained so nicely the vibrations of
the air, and Mr. Adams's sensibility to them? Had Mr. Ha-
milton a spy in the cabinet, who transmitted to him, from day
to day, the confidential communications between the President
and heads of department ? If there existed such a spy, why
might he not communicate these conferences to Mr. Liston, or
the Marquis Yrujo, as well as to Mr. Hamilton ? He had as
clear a right. I believe that all the privy counsellors of the
304 CORRESPONDENCE.
world but our own are under an oath of secrecy ; and ours
ought to be. But as they are not, their own honor and sense
of propriety ought, with them, to be obligations as sacred as an
oath.i
The truth is, I had arrived at Philadelphia from a long jour-
ney, which had been delayed longer than I intended, very much
fatigued ; and as no time was to be lost, I sent for the heads of
departments to consult, in the evening, upon the points to be
inserted in the speech to Congress, who were soon to meet.
My intention was, in the language of the lawyers, merely to
break the questions, or meet the points necessary for us to con-
sider ; not intending to express any opinion of my own, or to
request any opinion of theirs upon any point; but merely to
take the questions into their consideration, and give me their
advice upon all of them at a future meeting.
I observed that I found, by various sources of information,
and particularly by some of the newspapers in Boston and New
York, that there was a party who expected an unqualified re-
commendation of a declaration of war as^ainst France.
These paragraphs, I was well satisfied, were written by gen-
tlemen who were in the confidence and correspondence of Ha-
milton, and one of the heads of departments at least, though I
gave them no intimation of this.
I said to the gentlemen, that 1 supposed it would be expected
of us, that we should consider this question, and be able to give
our reasons for the determination, whatever it might be.
The conduct of the gentlemen upon this question was such
as I wished it to be upon all the others. No one of them gave
an opinion either for or against a declaration of ^var. There
was something, however, in the total silence and reserve of all
of them, and in the countenances of some, that appeared to me
to be the effect of disappointment. It seemed to me, that they
expected I should have proposed a declaration of war, and only
asked their advice to sanction it. However, not a word was
said.
That there was a disappointment, however, in Hamilton and
his friends, is apparent enough from this consideration, that
1 All this is now cleared up by Mr. Gibbs, and by the works of Mr. Hamilton.
The information furnished by three of the cabinet ministers seems to have been
continuous and complete.
CORRESPONDENCE. 305
when it was known that a declaration of war was not to be
recommended in the President's speech, a caucus was called of
members of Congress, to see if they could not get a vote for a
declaration of war, without any recommendation from the Pre-
sident, as they had voted the alien and sedition law, and the
army.^ What passed in that caucus, and how much zeal there
was in some, and who they were. Judge Sewall can tell better
than I. All that I shall say is, that Mr. Hamilton's friends
could not carry the vote.^
My second proposition to the heads of departments was to
consider, in case we should determine against a declaration of
war, what was the state of our relations with France, and
whether any further attempt at negotiation should be made.
Instead of the silence and reserve with which my first question
was received, Mr. Hamilton shall relate what was said.
Mr. Hamilton says, " It was suggested to him (Mr. Adams)
that it might be expedient to insert in the speech a sentiment
of this import ; that, after the repeatedly rejected advances of
this country, its dignity required that it should be left with
France in future to make the first overture ; that if, desirous of
reconciliation, she should evince the disposition by sending a
minister to this government, he would be received with the
respect due to his character, and treated with in the frankness
of a sincere desire of accommodation. The suggestion was
received in a manner both indignant and intemperate."
I demand again, how did Mr. Hamilton obtain this informa-
tion? Had he a spy in the cabinet? If he had, I own I had
1 In the fragment of 1801, it is said, —
" The truth is that at a private meeting of the federalists in Congress the
question was considered, but a majoi'ity were against a declaration of war. This
question was debated with heat, and here began, some time before the nomina-
tion of Mr. Murray to France, the serious schism. The minority who urged a
declaration of war were outrageous when they found the President apparently
fall in with the judgment of the majority."
2 Mr. Stoddert in his private letter considers the result of this caucus as
having been decisive of the policy of the country. He says ; —
"A majority of a caucus composed entirely of federal members of the two
Houses, would not agree to a declaration of war ; and the result of that meeting
showed too plainly to be mistaken by the President, that it was his duty to avail
himself of the first fair opportunity that presented, for seeking reconciliation
without debasement. The democratic party certainly was averse to war with
France ; so Avas the federal party, if war could be avoided without dishonor.
In this view of the subject, and to my understanding it is the true one, I cannot
conceive how you could have avoided instituting a negotiation, on the receipt
of Mr. Murray's letter."
26* T
306 CORRESPONDENCE.
rather that all the courts in Europe should have had spies there ;
for they could have done no harm by any true information they
could have obtained there ; whereas Hamilton has been able to
do a great deal of mischief by the pretended information he
has published.!
It is very true, that I thought this proposition intended to
close the avenues to peace, and to ensure a war with France ;
for I did believe that some of the heads of departments were
confident, in their own minds, that France would not send a
minister here.
From the intimate intercourse between Hamilton and some
of the heads of departments, which is demonstrated to the
world and to posterity by this pamphlet, I now appeal to every
candid and impartial man, whether there is not reason to sus-
pect and to believe, whether there is not a presumption, a violent
presumption, that Hamilton himself had furnished this machine
to his correspondent in the cabinet,^ for the very purpose of
ensnaring me, at unawares, of ensuring a war with France, and
enabling him to mount his hobby-horse, the command of an
army of fifty thousand, ten thousand of them to be horse.
Hamilton says, " the suggestion was received in a manner
both indignant and intemperate." This is false. It is true, it
was urged with so much obstinacy, perseverance, and inde-
cency, not to say intemperance, that at last I declared I would
not adopt it, in clear and strong terms.^
1 The information was furnislied by O. Wolcott, Secretary of the Treasury,
whom Mr. Adams never suspected. Mr. Hamilton states this explicitly in a
letter published in Mr. Gibbs's book, vol. ii. p. 422. It is not in Hamilton's
works.
- The fact seems to be admitted by Mr. Gibbs in his late Avork, vol. ii. p. 18G.
^ This appears more in detail in the earlier fragment.
" The truth must be told. There were some in America, though but a few,
among Mr. Hamilton's friends in Boston especially, who were desirous the
President in his speech should recommend to Congress an immediate declara-
tion of war. This question was considered by the President and heads of
department in seci-et. Some things were said, but no clear opinion, that is
remembered, expressed by any one. The President, after some time, made an
observation or two unnecessary to be repeated, wliich discovered the tendency
of his opinion, and all the heads of department acquiesced in the conclusion to
leave the subject wholly out of the address. A proposition was then made, the
words of which are not remembered, but the substance was a commitment of the
President to a declaration that he would send no more ministers to France.
The President was decidedly against this, and declared he would not commit
himself. The proposition was not received in any manner, either indignant or
intemperate. The manner in which it was urged, repeated, and insisted on,
was so indecent, that at last Mr. Adams expressed his ultimate determination in
CORRESPONDENCE. 307
Mr. Hamilton says, " Mr. Adams declared, as a sentiment he
had adopted on mature reflection, that if France should send a
minister here to-morrow, he would order him back the day after."
Here I ask again, where, how, and from whom did he get
this information. Was it from his spy in the cabinet? Or
was it the fabrication of his own " sublimated, eccenti'ic," ^ and
intemperate imagination ? In either case, it is an entire mis-
representation.
I said that, when in my retirement at Quincy, the idea of the
French government sending a minister here had sometimes
occurred to me, my first thoughts were, that I would send him
back the next day after his arrival, as a retaliation for their
sending ours back; and because the affront offered to us had
been at Paris, publicly, in the face of all Europe, the atonement
ought to be upon the same theatre ; and because, as the French
government had publicly and officially declared that they would
strong terms. ]\Ir. Adams observed, that when the idea of the French sending
a minister here was first made public, as it had been by Dr. Logan, Mr. Barlow,
and many others, his first fijelings were against receiving him. He thought,
as the insult had been oiTered in Paris, the reparation ought to be in Paris ; that
Europe, which had witnessed the afl'ront, should also witness the apology. He
further mentioned the inconveniences which would arise from conducting the
negotiation at Philadelphia. Nothing could be kept secret ; the French would
let out what they pleased. Our Jacobins would be clamorous and insolent,
taking the part of the French minister against their own government, as they
had done in Mv. Washington's time. Considering all those things, Mr. Adams
said his first thought was, that if a French minister arrived, he should be I'cjected,
as Mr. Pinckney had been ; but upon further reflection he did not see how it
could be reconciled to principles, for the right of embassy ought to be respected
even in time of war. His ultimate determination, therefore, was to leave the
door wide open for negotiation. Accordingly, he inserted in his speech these
words : ' It is peace that we have uniformly and perseveinngly cultivated, and
harmony between us and France may be restored at her option. But to send
another minister without more determinate assurances that he would be received,
would be an act of humiliation to which the United States ought not to submit.
It must, therefore, be left with France, if she is indeed desirous of acconnnoda-
tion, to take the requisite steps. The United States will steadily observe the
maxims by which they have been hitherto governed. They will respect the
sacred right of embassy.' This is the paragraph which Avas ultimately inserted,
and Mr. Adams's resolution in support of it has had the most happy and im-
portant effects ; and every man in the cabinet who opposed it, ought now, instead
of boasting of his error, to be ashamed of it."
1 It is a curious fact, that one of his own friends, Gouverneur Morris, should,
in substance, aflirm the same thing of Mr. Hamilton himself, which he affirmed
both of INIr. Adams and Mr. Jefferson.
" Our poor friend Hamilton bestrode his hobby to the great annoyance of his
friends, and not without injury to himself More a theoretic than a practical
man, he was not sufficiently convinced that a system may be good in itself, and
bad in relation to particular circumstances." Life of G. Morris, vol. iii. p. 216.
308 CORRESPONDENCE.
receive no minister plenijDotcntiary from the United States until
the President had made apologies for his speeches and answers
to addresses, they ought to be made to retract and take back
that rash declaration on the same spot where it had been made.
They might send a minister here consistently with that offensive
declaration. This was my first thought; but upon mature
reflection I saw that this would not be justifiable ; for to retaliate
one breach of principle by another breach of principle, was
neither the morality nor the policy that had been taught me by
my father and my tutors. Our principle was, that the right of
embassy was sacred. I would therefore sacredly respect it, if
they sent a minister here. But I would not foreclose myself
from sending a minister to France, if I saw an opening for it
consistent with our honor; in short, that I would leave both
doors and all doors wide open for a negotiation. All this
refutation came from myself, not from the heads of depart-
ments.
All that he says in this place and in the beginning of the
next page, of my wavering, is false. My mind never underwent
any revolution or alteration at all, after I left Quincy. I inserted
no declaration in my speech, that I would not send a minister
to France, nor any declaration that, if France would give assur-
ances of receiving a minister from this country, I would send
one. Nothing like that declaration was ever made, except in
my message to Congress, of the 21st of June, 1798, in these
words : " I will never send another minister to France, without
assurances that he will be received, respected, and honored, as
the representative of a great, free, powerful, and independent
nation." This declaration finally effected the peace.^
' From the draught of 1801 :
" The measure, fi-om its inception, was never determined on by considerations
of war or peace, prosperity or adversity to any of the powers at war in Europe.
Mr. Adams, in all his administration, has considered his country as a sovereign,
and her affairs as insulated. Peace to America, if attainable on safe and honor-
able terms, whether war or peace, triumphs or defeats in Europe. Humiliations
and reverses in France, Mr. Adams thought, if they were to have any considera-
tion at all, ought rather to accelei'ate than retard the measures of reconciliation,
because they ought to be imputed to generous motives rather than to mean
ones, and because he had observed, that great successes had produced an intoxi-
cating effect upon all the belligerent nations in succession.
Mr. Adams desires nothing more than to have the expediency of the measure
tested by the state of things, when it had its inception, when the foundation was
laid for it in the speech, when Mr. Murray was nominated, and when the envoys
CORRESPONDENCE. 309
Both the doors of negotiation were left open. The French
might send a minister here without conditions ; we might send
one to France upon condition of a certainty that he would be
received in character.
What conduct did the French government hold in conse-
quence of this declaration ? They retracted their solemn and
official declaration, that they would receive no minister pleni-
potentiary, in future, from the United States, without apologies
from the President for his speeches and answers to addresses.
They withdrew, and expressly disavowed, all claims of loans
and douceurs, which had been held up in a very high tone.
They even gave encouragement, I might say they promised, to
make provision for an equitable compensation for spoliations.
They promised to receive our ministers, and they did receive
them, and made peace with them, — a peace that completely
accomplished a predominant wish of my heart for five-and-
twenty years before, which was to place our relations with
France and with Great Britain upon a footing of equality and
impartiality, that we might be able to preserve, in future, an
everlasting neutrality in all the wars of Europe.
I see now with great pleasure, that England professes to
acknowledge and adopt this our principle of impartiality, and I
hope that France will soon adopt it too. The two powers
ought to see, that it is the only principle we can adopt with
safety to ourselves or justice to them. If this is an error, it is
an error in which I have been invariably and unchangeably fixed
for five-and-thirty years, in the whole course of which I have
never seen reason to suspect it to be an error, and I now de-
spair of ever discovering any such reasons.
Nevertheless, Mr. Hamilton calls the declaration that accom-
plished all this " a pernicious declaration ! "
Pernicious it was to his views of ambition and domination.
It extinguished his hopes of being at the head of a victorious
sailed. If it was not justified then, it never can be justified, -whatever may have
been its success for Mr. Adams admires the sentiment —
' Careat successibus opto
Quisquis ab eventu facta notanda putat.'
Upon the coolest review and reexamination, he thinks it the wisest action of
his life, and, as he knew the pains that would be taken to defeat it and to render
it unpopular, it was the most resolute and the most disinterested."
310 CORRESPONDENCE.
army of fifty thousand men, without which, he used to say, he
had no idea of having a head upon his shoulders for four years
longer.
Thus it is, when self-sufficient ignorance impertinently ob-
trudes itself into offices and departments, in which it has no
right, nor color, nor pretence to interfere.
Thus it is, when ambition undertakes to sacrifice all charac-
ters, and the peace of nations, to its own private interest.
I have now finished all I had to say on the negotiations and
peace with France in 1800.
In the mean time, when I look back on the opposition and
embarrassments I had to overcome, from the faction of British
subjects, from that large body of Americans who revere the
English and abhor the French, from some of the heads of de-
partments, from so many gentlemen in Senate, and so many
more in the House of Representatives, and from the insidious
and dark intrigues as well as open remonstrances of Mr. Hamil-
ton, I am astonished at the event.
In some of my jocular moments I have compared myself to
an animal I have seen take hold of the end of a cord with
his teeth, and be drawn slowly up by puUies, through a storm
of squibs, crackers, and rockets, flashing and blazing round him
every moment; and though the scorching flames made him
groan, and mourn, and roar, he would not let go his hold till he
had reached the ceiling of a lofty theatre, where he hung some
time, still suffering a flight of rockets, and at last descended
through another storm of burning powder, and never let go till
his four feet were safely landed on the floor.
In some of my social hours I have quoted Virgil :
Fata ohstant, placidasqtie viri Deus ohstruit awes.
Ac velut, annoso validam cum robore quercum
Alpini Borece nunc Mnc nuncjlaiibus illinc
Eruere inter se certant; it stridor ; et alte
Consternunt terram concusso stipite frondes ;
Ipsa Jiceret scopulis ; et quantum vertice ad auras
yEtherias, tantum radice in Tartara tendit ;
Haud secus assiduis Mnc atque Mnc vocibus heros
Tunditur, et magno persentit pectore curas.
Mens immota manet; lacrimce volvuntur inanes.
Lib. 4. 440.
CORRESPONDENCE. 311
His hardened heart nor prayers nor threatenlngs move ;
Fate and the Gods had stopp'd his ears ....
As when the winds their airy quarrel try,
Justling from every quarter of the sky ;
This way and that the mountain oak they bend,
His boughs they shatter, and his branches rend ;
With leaves and falHng mast they spread the ground.
Tlie hollow vallies to the echo sound ;
' Unmov'd, the sturdy plant their fury mocks.
Or shaken, clings more closely to the rocks ;
Far as he shoots his towering head on high,
So deep in earth his deep foundations lie ;
No less a storm the Trojan hero bears ;
Thick messages and loud complaints he hears,
And bandied words still beating on his ears.
Sighs, groans, and tears, proclaim his inward pains,
But the firm purpose of his heart remains.
Dryden, B. 4. 636.
But this is all levity. There have been sober hours, not a
few; and I know not that there has been one in which I have
not adored that providence of Almighty God, which alone could
have carried me safely through, to a successful issue, this trans-
action, and so many others equally difficult, and infinitely more
dangerous to my life, if not to my reputation.
Quincy, 10 June, 1809.
THE
INADMISSIBLE PHINCIPLES
OF THE
KING OF ENGLAND'S PROCLAMATION
OF OCTOBER 16, 1807, CONSIDERED.
This letter, in the date of its publication in the Boston Patriot, precedes those
which have gone before. It was subsequently published in a pamphlet with the
above title. It is placed in this order, because it is connected with the history
of later events.
The difficulties with Great Britain, which led to the adoption of the act ofjm-
bargo, of 1808, by; the Congress of the United States, incidentally opened a new
subject of difference between Mr. Pickering and Mr. Adams. Mr. Pickering
was then a senator of the United States from Massachusetts, and in that capacity
published, in the form of a letter addressed to Governor Sullivan, an appeal to the
people of the State against that measure. In the course of it he alluded to the
proclamation of the King of England, which constituted one great cause of diffi-
culty, in the terms which arc quoted, and which form the text of the following
paper. The letter of the 26th of December, alluded to at the commencement,
was addressed to J. B. Varnum, then a member of the House of Representatives
from Massachusetts. It may be found in the general correspondence.
Quincy, 9 January, 1809.
In my letter of the 26th of December, it was remarked that
the proclamation for pressing seamen from our merchant ships
had not been sufficiently reprobated. Some of the reasons
CORRESPONDENCE. 313
for that opinion will be found in the following commentaries,
which were written for private amusement, within a few days
after the appearance in public of this
TEXT.
"T/<e proclamation of the King- of Great Britain, requiring"
the return of his subjects, the seamen especially, from foreign
countries, to aid in this hour of peculiar danger, in defence of
their own ....
^^But it being an acknoivledged principle, that every nation has
a right to the service of its subjects in time of war, that procla-
mation could not furnish the slightest ground for an embargo.''''
This partial description has a tendency to deceive many, and
no doubt has deceived thousands. It is concealing the asp in a
basket of Jigs. The dangerous, alarming, and fatal part of the
proclamation is kept carefully out of sight.
Proclamations of one kind are of immemorial usage; but the
present one is the first of the kind. Proclamations of the first
kind, issued usually in the beginning of a war, are in effect but
simple invitations to subjects, who happen to be abroad, to return
home. To deny the right of the king to issue them, would be as
unreasonable as to deny his right to send a card of invitation to
one of his subjects to dine with him on St. George's day ; but
in neither case is the subject bound by law to accept the invi-
tation. As it is natural to every human mind to sympathize
with its native country when in distress or danger, it is well
known that considerable numbers of British commonly return
home from various foreign countries, in consequence of these
invitations by proclamation. The British ambassadors, con-
suls, agents, governors, and other officers give the proclamations
a general circulation, stimulate the people to return, and con-
trive many means to encourage and facilitate their passages.
All this is very well. All this is within the rules of modesty,
decency, law, and justice. No reasonable man will object to it.
But none of these proclamations, till this last, ever asserted a_
_right to take British subjects, by force, from the ships of foreign
nations,^ny more than from the cities and provinces of foreign
nations. On the other hand, it is equally clear, that British
subjects in foreign countries are under no indispensable obliga-
tion of religion, morality, law, or policy, to return, in compliance
VOL. IX. '-<
314 CORRESPONDENCE.
with such proclamations. No penalty is annexed by English
laws to any neglect; no, nor to any direct or formal disobe-
dience. Hundreds, in fact, do neglect and disobey the procla-
mations, to one who complies with them. Thousands who have
formed establishments and settled families, or become natural-
ized, or made contracts, or enlisted on board merchant ships, or
even ships of war, in foreign countries, pay no regard to these
orders or invitations of their former sovereign. Indeed, all who
have become naturalized in foreign countries, or entered into
contracts of any kind, public or private, with governments or
merchants, farmers or manufacturers, have no right to return
until they have fulfilled their covenants and obligations. The
President of the United States has as legal authority to issue
similar proclamations, and they would be as much respected by
American citizens all over the globe. But every American
would say his compliance was voluntary, and none, whose en-
gagements abroad were incompatible with compliance, would
obey.
But " it is an acknowledged principle, that every nation has
a right to the service of its subjects in time of war." By whom
is this principle acknowledged? By no man, I believe, in the
unlimited sense in which it is here asserted. With certain quali-
fications and restrictions it may be admitted. Within the realm
and in his own dominions the king has a right to the service of
his subjects, at sea and on land, by voluntary enlistments, and
to send them abroad on foreign voyages, expeditions, and enter-
prises ; but it would be difficult to prove the right of any exe-
cutive authority of a free people to compel free subjects into
service by conscriptions or impressments, like galley-slaves, at
the point of the bayonet, or before the mouths of field artillery.
Extreme cases and imperious necessity, it is said, have no laws ;
but such extremities and necessity must be very obvious to the
whole nation, or freemen will not comply. Impressments of
seamen from British merchantmen, in port or at sea, are no
better than the conscriptions of soldiers by Napoleon, or Louis
XIV. who set him the example.
So much for that part of the proclamation, which the text
produces to public view. Now for the other part, which it has
artfully concealed. The king not only commands his subjects to
return, but he commands the officers of his navy to search the_
CORRESPONDENCE. 315
merchant ships of neutrals (meaning Americans, for it is not ap-
plicable to any others, nor intended to be applied to any others,)
and impress all British seamen they find on board, without re-
gard to any allegations of naturalization ; without regard to any
certificates of citizenship ; without regard to any contracts, cove-
nants, or connections they have formed with captains or owners;
and without regard to any marriages, families, or children they
may have in America. And in what principle or law is this
founded? Is there any law of God to support it? Is there
any law of nature to justify it? Is there any law of England
to authorize it? Certainly not. The laws of England have no
binding force on board American ships, more than the laws of
China or Japan. The laws of the United States alone, of which
the law of nations is a part, have dominion over our merchant
ships. In what law, then, is it grounded? In the law of na-
tions ? It is a counterfeit foisted into that law, by this arbitrary,
fraudulent proclamation, for the first time. Such a title, as
Impressment of Seamen, was never found in any code of laws,
since the first canoe was launched into the sea ; not even in
that of England. Whoever claims a right, must prodvice a law
to support it. But this proclamation attempts to transfer a
pretended right of iiTipressing seamen from their own ships,
which, in truth, is only an enormous abuse, to the impressment
of seamen from foreign nations, foreign ships, and foreign sub-
jects. The horror of this gross attempt, this affront to our
understandings as well as feelings, this contempt of our natural
and national resentment of injuries, as well as of our sympathies
with fellow-citizens and fellow-creatures, suffering the vilest
oppression under inhumanity and cruelty, could never have
appeared in the world, had not the spirits of Lord Bute and
Lord George Germaine risen again at St. James's.
It is in vain for the Britons to say, these men are the king's
subjects. How are they the king's subjects ? By British laws.
And what are the British laws to us, on the high seas ? No
more than the laws of Otaheite. We Americans must say, they
are our fellow-citizens by our laws. They have sworn alle-
giance to the United States. We have admitted them to all
the rights and privileges of American citizens, and by this ad-
mission have contracted with them to support and defend them
in the enjoyment of all such rights. Our laws acknowledge no
316 CORRESPONDENCE.
divine right of kings greater than those of subjects, nor any
indefeasible duty of subjects, more than that of kings, to obe-
dience. These remnants of feudal tyranny and ecclesias-
tical superstition have been long since exploded in America.
The king claims them, to make them slaves. The Presi-
dent of the United States claims them, as it is his duty to do,
by his office and his oath, not to enslave them, but to protect
them and preserve them free. Our laws are as good as Bri-
tish laws. Our citizens have as good a right to protection
as British subjects, and our government is as much bound to
afford it.
What is impressment of seamen ? It is no better than
what the civilians call plagiat, a crime punishable with death
by all civilized nations, as one of the most audacious and
punishable offences against society. It was so considered
among the Hebrews. " He that stealeth a man and selletj]_
him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put
to death." Exodus xxi. 16. " If a man be found stealing
any of his brethren, then that thief shall die." Deuteronomy
xxiv. 7. The laws of Athens, like those of the Hebrews, con-
demned the plagiary or man-stealer to death ; and the laws
of Rome pronounced the same judgment against the same out-
rage. But to descend from the Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans
to the British ; what is the impressment of seamen in England,
by their own laws, in their own ports, from their own ships
within the four seas, or anywhere on the high seas ? It is said
to be an usage. So were ship-money, loans, and benevolences
in the reign of Charles the First ; and arguments were used by
his courtiers to prove their legality, as plausible and conclusive
as any that have been produced by Judge Foster in favor of
impressment. It is at best but an abuse, subsisting only by
toleration and connivance, likejt-he^ practice J_n_Holland of kid-
napping]^ men for settlers or servants in Batavia. It is in direct
contradiction and violation of every principle of English liberty.
It is a direct violation of Magna Charta, and the fifty-five con-
firmations of it in parliament, and a bold defiance of all the
ecclesiastical execrations against the violators of it. It is in
direct violation of all their other statutes, bills, and petitions of
right, as well as the Habeas Corpus Act. It deprives free sub-
jects of their liberty, property, and often of their lives, without
COllRESPONDENCE. 317
alleging or pretending any accusation against them of any
crime or fault. It deprives them of the trial by jury, and subjects
them to scourges and death by martial law and the judgments
of courts-martial. It is a kind of civil war made upon inno-
cent, unoffending subjects. It is said that in a general impress-
ment, like that of Admiral Keppell, it cost the nation, in cutters,
luggers, press-gangs, and it might have been added, Nanny-
houses and rendezvous of debauchery and con'uption, a hun-
dred pounds for every man they obtained. The practice is not
avowed or acknowledged by the nation. No parliament ever
dared to legitimate or sanction it. No court of law ever dared
to give a judgment in favor of it. No judge or lawyer that
ever I heard of, till Foster, ever ventured to give a private opi-
nion to encourage it.
Thurlow, when he was Chancellor, hazarded a saying to a
committee of the city of London, that the practice of impress-
ment of seamen was legal ; but the committee answered him
respectfully, but firmly, though in the presence of the king in
council — " We acknowledge the high authority of your lord-
ship's opinion, but we must declare that we are of a very differ-
ent opinion ; " and their answer appeared to be applauded by
the nation. Press-gangs are continually opposed and resisted
at sea by the sailors, whenever they have the means or the least
hope of escaping. Navy officers and men are sometimes killed,
and there is no inquisition for their blood. As little noise as
possible is made about it. It is known to be justifiable homi-
cide to take the life of an assailant in the necessary defence of
a man's liberty. There is not a jury in England who would
find a verdict of murder or manslaughter against any sailor, on
land or at sea, who should kill any one of a press-gang in the
necessary defence of his liberty from impressment. Press-gangs
on shore are often resisted by the people, fired on, some of them
wounded and sometimes killed. Yet no inquisition is made for
this. The practice is held in abhorrence by the men-of-war' s-
men themselves. The boatswain of the Rose frigate, after the
acquittal of the four Irish sailors, who were prosecuted in a
special court of admiralty at Boston, for killing a gallant and
amiable officer. Lieutenant Panton, said, " This is a kind of
work in which I have been almost constantly engaged for
twenty years, i. c, in fighting with honest sailors, to deprive
318 CORRESPONDENCE.
them of their liberty. I always suspected that I oaght to be
hanged for it, but now I know it."
Since I have alluded to this case, it may not be amiss to
recollect some other circumstances of it. A press-gang from
the Rose, commanded by Lieutenant Panton, with a midship-
man and a number of ordinary seamen, visited and searched
a merchant-ship from Marbleheadj belonging to Mr. Hooper,
at sea. The lieutenant inquired if any English, Irish, or
Scotchmen were on board. Not satisfied with the answer
he received, he prepared to search the ship from stem to
stern. At last he found four Irishmen retired and concealed
in the forepeak. With swords and pistols he immediately
laid siege to the inclosure, and summoned the men to sur-
render. Corbet, who had the cool intrepidity of a Nelson,
reasoned, remonstrated, and laid down the law with the preci-
sion of a Mansfield. " I know who you are. You are the
lieutenant of a man-of-war, come with a press-gang to deprive
me of my liberty. You have no right to impress me. I have
retreated from you as far as I can. I can go no farther. I and
my companions are determined to stand upon our defence.
Stand off." The sailors within and without employed their usual
language to each other, and a midshipman, in the confusion,
fired a pistol into the forepeak, and broke an arm of one of the
four. Corbet, who stood at the entrance, was engaged in a
contest of menaces and defiances with the lieutenant. He re-
peated what he had before said, and marking a line with a har-
poon in the salt, with which the ship was loaded, said, " You
are determined to deprive me of my liberty, and I am deter-
mined to defend it. If you step over that line, I shall con-
sider it as a proof that you are determined to impress me,
and by the eternal God of Heaven, you are a dead man." "Aye,
my lad," said the lieutenant, " I have seen many a brave fellow
before now." Taking his snufl-box out of his pocket, and tak-
ing a pinch of snuff, he very deliberately stepped over the line,
and attempted to seize Corbet. The latter, drawing back his
arm, and driving his harpoon with all his force, cut off the carotid
artery and jugular vein, and laid the lieutenant dead at his feet.
The Rose sent a reenforcement to the press-gang. They broke
down the bulk-head, and seized the four Irishmen, and brought
them to trial for piracy and murder. The court consisted of
CORRESPONDENCE. si$
Governor Bernard, Governor Wentworth, Chief Justice Hutch-
inson, Judge Auchmuty, Commodore Hood himself, who then
commanded all the ships of war on the station, now a peer of
the British empire, and twelve or fifteen others, counsellors of
Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island. After the
trial, the President, Governor Bernard, pronounced the judg-
ment of the court, that the act of the prisoners was justifiable
homicide, and in this opinion the whole court was unanimous.^
The sailor who was wounded in the arm, brought an action
against the midshipman, and Commodore Hood himself inter-
posed and made compensation to the sailor, to his satisfaction,
after which the action was withdrawn. Such was the impress-
ment of seamen, as it stood, by law, before our revolution.
The author of my text, then, carries his courtly complaisance
to the English government, farther than the Governors Bernard
and Hutchinson, and even than Lord Hood carried it, when we
were a part of the British empire. He thinks, that, as every
nation has a right to the service of its subjects, in time of war,
the proclamation of the King of Great Britain, commanding
his naval officers to practise such impressments on board, not
the vessels of his own subjects, but of the United States, a
foreign nation, could not furnish the slightest ground for an
embargo ! It is not necessary for me to say, that any thing
could furnish a sufficient ground for an embargo, for any long
time ; this, I leave to the responsibility of our President, sena-
tors, and representatives in Congress. But, I say, with confi-
dence, that it furnished a sufficient grouiid J'o_r a declaration of _
war. Not the murder of Pierce, nor all the murders on board
the Chesapeake, nor all the other injuries and insults we have
received from foreign nations, atrocious as they have been, can
be of such dangerous, lasting, and pernicious consequence to
this country, as this proclamation, if we have servility enough
to submit to it.
What would the author of my text have advised ? Would he
counsel the President to stipulate, in a treaty with Great Britain,
that his navy officers should forever hereafter have a right to
visit and search all American merchant-ships, and impress from
them all English, Scotch, and Irish seamen? Will he be so
1 Compare this account with that given by Hutchinson in the tliird volume
of his History, since published, p. 231, likewise with the reflections in the
Diary, vol. ii. of this work, p. 224 - 226, also the note and the appendix B.
320 CORRESPONDENCE.
good as to explain the distinction between ships of war and
merchant-ships ? Are not merchant-ships under the jurisdiction
and entitled to the protection of the laws of their country upon
the high seas as much as ships of war? Is not a merchant-ship
as much the territory of the United States as a ship of war ?
Would the author of my text advise the President and Congress
to acquiesce, in silence, under this proclamation, and permit it
to be executed forever hereafter ? Would not such a tame and
silent acquiescence as effectually yield the point, and establish
the practice, if not the law, as an express stipulation in a solemn
treaty ? If the United States had as powerful a navy as Great
Britain, and Great Britain as feeble a force at sea as ours,
would he advise the President either to concede the principle
by treaty, or acquiesce in it in silence ? Does the circumstance
of great power or great weakness make any alteration in the
principle or the right ? Should the captain or crew of an Ame-
rican merchant-man resist a British press-gang on the high seas,
and, in defence of their liberty, kill the commander and all under
him, and then make their escape, and after returning to Salem
be prosecuted, would the writer of my text, as a judge or a juror,
give his judgment for finding them guilty of murder or piracy?
Although the embargo was made the watchword in our late
elections, the votes, in our greatest nurseries of seamen, for
example, in Salem, in Marblehead, in Barnstable, Sandwich,
and other places on Cape Cod, in Nantucket, and the Vineyard,
and other places, seemed to show, that our seamen preferred to
be embarg'oed rather than go to sea to be impressed.
No doubt it will be said, that we have nothing to do with the
question in England concerning the legality or illegality of im-
pressments. This, as long as they confine the law and the
practice to their own territory, to their own ships, and their own
seamen, is readily acknowledged. W^e shall leave them to
justify their own usage, whether it is a mere abuse or a legiti-
mate custom, to their own consciences, to their own sense of
equity, humanity, or policy. But when they arrogate a right,
and presume in fact, to transfer their usurpation to foreign na-
tions, or rather to Americans, whom they presume to distinguish
from all other foreign nations, it becomes the interest, the right,
and the indispensable duty of our government to inquire into
the nefarious nature of it in England, in order to expose the
CORRESPONDENCE. 321
greater turpitude of it when transferred to us, as well as to
oppose and resist it to the utmost of their power; and it is
equally the duty of , the people to support their government in
such opposition to the last extremity.
Permit me now to inquire, what will be the effects of an
established law and practice of British impressments of seamen
from American ships, upon the commerce, the navigation, and
the peace of the United States, and, above all, upon the hearts
and minds of our seamen.
In considering those innumerable dangers, from winds and
seas, rocks and shoals, to which all ships are exposed in their
voyages, the owner and master must sit down together in order
to determine the number of seamen necessary for the voyage.
They must calculate the chances of impressment, and engage a
supernumerary list of sailors, that they may be able to spare as
many as the British lieutenant shall please to take, and have
enough left to secure the safety of the ship and cargo, and
above all, the lives of the master and crew. They know not
how many British ships of war they may meet, nor how many
sailors the conscience of each lieutenant may allow him to im-
press. For the lieutenant is to be judge, jury, sheriff, and
gaoler, to every seaman in American vessels. He is to try
many important questions of law and of fact; whether the
sailor is a native of America ; whether he has been lawfully
naturalized in America ; whether he is an Englishman, Scotch-
man, or Irishman ; whether he emigrated to America before the
revolution or since. Indeed, no evidence is to be admitted of
any naturalization by our laws, in any of the States since the
revolution, if before. In truth, the doctrine of the inherent and
indefeasible duty of allegiance is asserted so peremptorily in the
proclamation, that the lieutenant may think it his duty to im-
press every man who was born in the British dominions. It
may be the opinion of this learned judge, that the connection
between the king and subject is so sacred and divine, that alle-
giance cannot be dissolved by any treaty the king has made, or
even by any act of parliament. And this pious sentiment may
subject us all to impressment at once. This, however, en passant.
The lieutenant is to order the captain of the merchant-man
to lay before him a list of his crew; he is then to command the
crew to be ordered, or summoned, or mustered, to pass in review
u
322 CORRESPONDENCE.
before him. A tribunal ought to be erected. The lieutenant
is to be the judge, possessed of greater authority than the Chief
Justice of any of our States, or even than the Chief Justice of
the United States. The midshipman is to be clerk, and the
boatswain, sheriff or marshal. And who are these lieutenants?
Commonly very young gentlemen, the younger sons of wealthy
families, who have procured their commissions to give them an
honorable living, instead of putting them apprentices to trade,
merchandise, law, physic, or divinity. Their education, their
experience, their manners, their principles, are so well known,
that I shall say nothing of them. Lord Keppel said, that he
knew the maxim of British seamen to be, '■Ho do no rig-ht and
receive no ivrong;.''^ The principles of the officers I believe to be
somewhat better; but in this they all seem to agree, officers
and men, and their present ministry seem to be of the same
opinion, that the world was made for the British nation, and
that all nature and nations were created for the dignity and
omnipotence of the British navy.
It is impossible to figure to ourselves, in imagination, this
solemn tribunal and venerable judge, without smiling, till the
humiliation of our country comes into our thoughts, and inter-
rupts the sense of ridicule, by the tears of grief or vengeance.
" Higli on a splendid seat, which far outshone
Henley's gilt tub, or Flecnoe's Irish throne " —
the lieutenant examines the countenance, the gait and air of
every seaman. Like the sage of old, commands him to speak
"that he may know him." He pronounces his accent and dia-
lect to be that of the Scotch, Irish, West Country, Yorkshire,
Welsh, Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, or Sark. Many native
Americans are the descendants of emigrants from all these
countries, and retain a tincture of the language and pronuncia-
tion of their fathers and grandfathers. These will be decided
to be the king's subjects. Many will be found to be emigrants
or the descendants of emigrants from Germany, Holland, Swe-
den, France, Spain, Portugal, or Italy. These will be adjudged
by the lieutenant not to be native Americans. They will be
thought to have no friends in America who will care enough
for them to make much noise, and these will be impressed.
If there should be any natives or sons of natives of any of
the West India Islands, or of any part of the East Indies,
CORRESPONDENCE. 323
where the king is said to have thirty millions of subjects, these
must ail be impressed, for conquest confers the indelible cha-
racter of subjects as well as birth. But if neither English,
Scotch, Irish, Welsh, Italian, German, Dutchman, Spaniard,
Portuguese, East or West India man is found, the reverend
Ueulenanl will think, if he is prudent enough not to say, Jura
negal sibi lata, nihil non arrogat armis. " Our ship is so weakly
manned, that we cannot fight an enemy ; we cannot even navi-
gate her in safety in bad weather. Procul a Jove, procul afiil-
viine. I will take as many native Americans as I please. It
will be long before I can be called to account ; and at last, I
can say that I saved the king's ship, and perhaps beat a French-
man, by the aid of this meritorious impressment, and I am sure
of friends who will not only bring me off, but obtahi a promo-
tion for me even for this patriotic action." How many Ameri-
can ships and cargoes will be sunk in the sea, or driven on shore,
wrecked and lost; how many masters and remaining sailors
will be buried in the oceans for want of the assistance of the
men thus kidnapped and stolen, no human foresight can calcu-
late. It is, however, easy to predict that the number must be
very great. These considerations, it seems, have no weight in
the estimation of the British ministry. Their hearts are not
taught to feel another's woe. But all these things the captain
and owner of an American merchant-ship must take into con-
sideration, and make the subjects of calculation before they can
venture to sea. In short, there should be a corporation erected
in every State for the express purpose of insuring against im-
pressment of seamen. In a course of time and experience the
chances might be calculated, so that the insurers and insured
might at a great expense be secure. But the poor sailors can
never be safe.
The law must be settled, or remain unsettled. If such im-
pressments are determined to be legal, either by treaty or by
acquiescence in the King's Proclamation, it will establish in the
minds of British seamen a pride of superiority and a spirit of
domination, and in the minds of American seamen a conscious-
ness of inferiority and a servile spirit of submission, that ages
will not eradicate. If the question is allowed to remain unde-
termined, American seamen will fight in defence of their liberty
whenever they see the smallest prospect of escaping, and some-
324 CORRESPONDENCE.
times when there is none. They will kill and be killed. Some
will be punished for their resistance on board the British men
of war ; and some may be carried to a British port and there
be prosecuted for piracy and murder. This, however, will sel-
dom or ever be done ; for I still believe there is sense and justice
enough in the British nation and their juries to acquit any sea-
man, American or British, who should kill a press-gang in
defence of his liberty ; but if he should escape and return to
America, and be here prosecuted, I will not believe there is a
judge or juror on the continent so ignorant of the law, so dead
to every sense of justice, so abandoned by every feeling of
humanity, as to find him guilty of any crime, if it were proved
that he had killed a dozen press-gangs in defence of his free-
dom. We shall have a continual warfare at sea, like that lately
at Canton. Our Secretary of State's office will be filled with
representations and complaints. Our nation will be held in a
constant state of irritation and fermentation, and our govern-
ment always distressed between their anxiety to relieve their
fellow-citizens, and their inability to serve them.
A republican, who asserts the duty of jealousy, ought to sus-
pect that this proclamation was dictated by a spirit as hostile
and malicious as it was insidious, for the determined purpose
of depressing the character of our seamen. Take from a sailor
his pride and his courage, and he becomes a poor animal indeed ;
broken-hearted, dejected, depressed even below the standard of
other men of his own level in society. A habit of fear will be
established in his mind. At the sight of a British man-of-war
a panic will seize him ; his spirits will sink, and if it be only a
cutter or a lugger, he will think of nothing but flight and escape.
What but the haughty spirit of their seamen, which has been
encouraged and supported for ages by the nation, has given the
British navy its superiority over the navies of other nations ?
" Who shall dare to set bounds to the commerce and naval
power of Great Britain?" is the magnificent language of de-
fiance in parliament, and it vibrates and echoes through every
heart in the nation. Every British sailor is made to believe
himself the master and commander of the world. If the right
of impressment is conceded by us, in theory or practice, our
seamen's hearts will be broken, and every British seaman will
say to every American seaman, as the six nations of Indians
CORRESPONDENCE. 325
said to the southern tribes, whom they had conquered, " We
have jmt petticoats on youP In such a case many would have
too much reason to say, let us no longer rejoice for independ-
ence, or think of a navy or free commerce, no longer hope for
any rank in the world, but bow our necks again to the yoke of
Great Britain.
K the spirit of a man should remain in our sailors, they will
sometimes resist. Should a British cutter demand to search
an American merchant-ship of five hundred tons burthen, armed
as they sometimes are, and have a right to be — the commander
of the cutter calls for a muster of the men, in order to impress
such as he, in his wisdom, shall judge to be British subjects.
Is it credible that the captain and crew of the merchant-man
will submit to such usage ? No, he will sink the boat, and the
cutter too, rather than to be so insulted, and every American
must applaud him for his spirit.
___ Is this right of impressment to be all on one side, or is it to
be reciprocal ? British modesty may say, " It is an exclusive
privilege which we claim, assert, and will maintain, because it
is necessary to support our dominion of the seas, which is neces-
sary to preserve the balance of power in Europe against France,
and to prevent the French emperor from sending fifty thousand
men to conquer the United States of America." All this will
not convince American seamen. They will answer, " We
think a balance of power on the ocean as necessary as on the
continent of Europe. "We thank you for your civility in kindly
giving us hopes that you will defend us from the French army
of fifty thousand men ; but we are very willing to take our
defence upon ourselves. If you have a right to impress seamen
from our ships, we have an equal right to impress from yours."
Should one of our gun-boats meet a British East India man,
armed with fifty guns — the gun-boat demands a search for
American seamen, calls for the muster-roll, commands the men
to pass in review before him. Would the East India captain
submit ? No. He would sooner throw overboard the press-
gang and run down the gun-boat. Such will be the perpetual
altercations between Britons and Americans at sea, and lay an
immovable foundation of eternal hatred between the two na-
tions. The king's proclamation will be found as impolitic a
step as ever the court of St. James has taken.
VOL. IX. 28
326 CORRESPONDENCE.
It is said in the context, " the British ships of war, agreeably
to a right claimed and exercised for ages — a right claimed
and exercised during the whole of the administrations of Wash-
ington, of Adams, and of Jefferson, — continue to lake some of
the British seamen found on board our merchant vessels, and
with them a small pumber of ours, from the impossibility of
always distinguishing Englishmen from the citizens of the
United States." We have before seen what sort of a right to
impress men from their own ships has been claimed, in what
manner it has been exercised, and in what light it has been
considered by the English nation. It amounts to a right of
getting their officers lawfully killed. But surely, no right was
ever before claimed to impress men from foreign ships. If such
a pretended right was ever exercised, or, in other words, if such
a crime was ever committed, I presume it would be no better
proof of a legal right than a robbery, burglary, or murder, com-
mitted on shore, would prove that such actions are innocent
and lawful. To argue from single facts, or a few instances, to
a general law, is a sophistry too common with political writers,
and is sometimes imputable to compilers of the laws of na-
tions; but none of them ever went to such extravagance as this.
No claim or pretension of any right to search foreign vessels for
seamen ever existed before our revolution, and no exercise of
such a right ever prevailed since, except such as resembles the
exercise of the right of committing robbery, burglary, and mur-
der in some of our cities. No "ages" have passed since our
revolution. The right was never asserted or claimed till the
late proclamation of the king appeared, and that proclamation
will make an epoch of disgrace and disaster to one nation or
the other, perhaps to both.
From the peace of 1783 to the commencement of our govern-
ment, under the present national Constitution, whenever any
American seamen were impressed they were immediately de-
manded in the name of the old Congress, and immediately
discharged without ever pretending to such right of impress-
ment. During the administration of Washington, whenever
information was received of any impressment, immediate orders
were sent to demand the men, and the men were promised to
be liberated. Washington sent Captain Talbot to the West
Indies as an agent to demand seamen impressed on board
CORRESPONDENCE. 327
British men-of-war. Talbot demanded them of the British
commanders, captains, and admirals, and was refused. He
went then on shore, and demanded and obtained of the Chief
Justice of the island writs of Habeas Corpus, by virtue of which
the impressed seamen were brought from the king's ships, and
set at liberty by law, the commanders not daring to disobey the
king's writ. During the administration of Adams, the Secretary
of State's office can show what demands were made, and the
success of them. The remonstrances that were made in conse-
quence of positive instructions, and the memorials presented at
court by our minister, were conceived in terms as strong as the
English language could furnish, without violating that respect
and decorum which ought always to be preserved between
nations and governments, even in declarations of war. The
practice was asserted to be not only incompatible with every
principle of justice and every feeling of humanity, but wholly
irreconcilable with all thoughts of a continuance of peace and
friendship between the two nations. The effect of the memorial
was an immediate order to the commanders of the navy to libe-
rate the demanded men. I shall say nothing of Mr. Jefferson's
^administration, because the negotiations already made public
sufficiently show, that he has not been behind either of his
predecessors in his zeal for the liberty of American seamen.
During all this time, excuses and apologies were made, and
necessity was sometimes hinted; but no serious pretension of
right was advanced. No. The first formal claim was the
king's proclamation. With what propriety, then, can this be
called "a right, claimed and exercised for ages, and dm-ing the
whole of the administrations of Washington, Adams, and
Jefferson " ?
Is there any reason why another proclamation should not
soon appear, commanding all the officers of the army in Canada
and Nova Scotia to go over the line, and take by force all the
king's subjects they can find in our villages? The right would
stand upon the same principles ; but there is this difference, it
would not be executed with so little danger.
A few words more on the subject of pressing. In strictness
we have nothing to do with the question, whether impressments
of seamen in England are legal or illegal. Whatever iniquity
or inhumanity that government may inflict on their own sub-
328 CORRESPONDENCE.
jects, we have no authority to call them to an account for it.
But when they extend that power to us, a foreign nation, it is
natural for us, and it is our duty as well as interest, to consider
what it is among themselves.
The most remarkable case in which this subject has been
touched in Westminster Hall, is in Cowper's Reports, page 512,
Rex vs. John Tubbs. The report of the case is very long, and
I shall only observe, that the question of the legality of the
power of impressment was not before the court. The question
was, whether the Lord Mayor had a right to exempt thirty or
forty watermen for his barges. Lord Mansfield sufficiently
expresses his alarm, and his apprehension of the consequences
of starting a question relative to the subject, in the following
words : " I am very sorry that either of the respectable parties
before the court, the city of London on the one hand, or the
lords commissioners of the admiralty on the other, have been
prevailed upon to agitate this question," &c.
"I was in hopes the court would have had an opportunity of
investigating this point to the bottom, instead of being urged
to discuss it so instantaneously," &c. " I own I wished for a
more deliberate consideration upon this subject ; but being pre-
vented of that, I am bound to say what my present sentiments
are. The power of pressing is founded upon immemorial usage,
allowed for ages. If it be so founded, and allowed for ages, it
can have no ground to stand upon, nor can it be vindicated or
justified by any reason, but the safety of the State; and the
practice is deduced from that trite maxim of the constitutional
law of England, that private mischief had better be submitted
to than public detriment and inconvenience should ensue. To
be sure, there are instances where private men must give way
to the public good ; in every case of pressing, every man must
be very sorry for the act and for the necessity which gives rise
to it. It ought, therefore, to be exercised with the greatest
moderation and only upon the most cogent necessity, and
though it be a legal power, it may, like many others, be abused
in the exercise of it."
The case is too long to transcribe ; but it is worth reading.
My remarks upon it shall be short.
1. Lord Mansfield most manifestly dreaded the question,
probably on account of the innumerable difficulties attending it,
as well as the national uproar it would most certainly excite.
CORRESPONDENCE. 329
2. His lordship carefully avoided the use of the word ri^ht.
He knew the sense, force, and power of the word too well to
profane that sacred expression by applying it to a practice so
loose and undefined, so irregular and capricious, so repugnant
to the inherent, hereditary, unalienable and indefeasible birth-
rights of British subjects.
3. He calls it a pj-actice and a power, but he does not even
venture to call it a prerogative of the crown.
4. He does not even affirm that there exists such an imme-
morial usage allowed for ages. He says, " if it be so founded
and allowed for ages." The existence of such an immemorial
usage, allowed for ages, was probably one of the principal points
he wished to investigate.
5. He does not affirm that such a custom, usage, power, or
practice could be pleaded or given in evidence against Magna
Charta. If his lordship had been allowed time to investigate
the subject to the bottom, he perhaps would not have found
evidence of any such immemorial usage allowed for ages. He
certainly would not have found it allowed by any national act
or legal authority ; and, without one or the other, how can it be
said to have been allowed ? Allowed by whom ? By those
who committed the trespass, and no others. His lordship,
moreover, might have found, that no custom, usage, power, or
practice could be alleged, pleaded, or given in evidence in any
court of justice against Magna Charta.
6. All the judges allow that exemptions, badges, and protec-
tions against impressment, have been given by Peers, Commons,
fjord Mayors, Lords and officers of the Admiralty, and, as I
understand Lord Mansfield, by officers of the navy. Now,
what a loose, vindefined, arbitrary power is this, to be legally
established as an immemorial usage allowed for ages !
7. I wonder not that his lordship dreaded the discussion of it,
and an investigation of it to the bottom, for he must have fore-
seen the endless difficulties of ascertaining, defining, and limit-
ing the usages which were immemorial, and distinguishing them
from such as were modern, temporary, usurped, and not allowed.
8. The counsel for the city had before observed, that the
legality of pressing, if founded at all, could only be supported
by immemorial usage, there being clearly no statute in force
investing the crown with any such authority.
28*
330 CORRESPONDENCE.
9. The infinite difficulty of determining who were seamen
and who were not, must be obvious, and all agi-ee that the
power is confined to seamen and them only.
Christian, in his edition of Blackstone, vol. i. p. 419, says, in
a note, " The legality of pressing is so fully established, that it
W"ill not now admit of a doubt in any court of justice ; " and in
proof of this he quotes Lord Mansfield's opinion in the case
of the King against Tubbs, in the words I have transcribed.
Whereas I think that, taking all Lord Mansfield says together,
he makes the subject as doubtful as ever, and encumbered with
innumerable and insuperable difficulties.
Upon the whole, all I conclude from the conduct of the mo-
dern judges and lawyers in England is, that their pride in the
navy has got the better of their sense of law and justice, and
that court and county lawyers, as well as administration and
opposition, have been gradually endeavoring to unite for the
last thirty or forty years, in sacrificing the principles of justice
and law to reasons of state, by countenancing this branch of
arbitrary power. But let them keep their arbitrary powers at
Jioriie,jiot practise them upon us, our ships, or seamen.
John Adams.
Quincy, 25 April, 1809.
GENERAL COHRESPONDENCE.
The large share of this work occupied by the official papers, necessarily con-
tracts the limits that are assigned to the private letters. From the voluminous
collection of these, -written in the course of more than half a century, a rigid
selection is now made. Probably not a single leading actor of the revolutionary"
period has left nearly so many as Mr. Adams. Even if the publication of all
were deemed advisable, it could hardly be done within reasonable compass. In
the present publication, the bounds of which were clearly defined at the outset,
the aim has been to comprise within the space that remains all that seem for any
reason to present the strongest claims to admission. Of course, much has been
rejected. Especially is it matter of regret that room could not be found for the
familiar letters as well of Mr. Adams as of his wife, a small portion of which
were collected and published by the Editor in another shape some years afo.
A number of letters addressed to Mr. Adams by distinguished men, which had
been prepared, are likewise excluded, for the same reason. These materials,
however, are not lost. They await a later period, when they may be presented
in a shape not less durable than the present, to illustrate the heroic age of the
United American States.
TO CATHARINE, MACAULAY.^
9 August, 1770.
Madam, — I received from Mr. Gill an intimation that a
letter from me would not be disagreeable to you ; and I have
been emboldened, by that means, to run the venture of giving
you this trouble. I have read, with much admiration, Mrs.
Macaulay's History of England, &c. It is formed upon the
plan which I have ever wished to see adopted by historians. It
1 The author of the History of England.
332 COKRESPONDENCE.
is calculated to strip off the gilding and false lustre from worth-
less princes and nobles, and to bestow the reward of virtue,
praise, upon the generous and worthy only. No charms of
eloquence can atone for the want of this exact historical moral-
ity ; and I must be allowed to say, I have never seen a history
in which it is more religiously regarded. It was from this
history, as well as from the concurrent testimony of all who
have come to this country from England, that I had formed the
highest opinion of the author as one of the brightest ornaments,
not only of her sex, but of her age and country. I could not,
therefore, but esteem the information given me by Mr. Gill, as
one of the most agreeable and fortunate occurrences of my life.
Indeed, it was rather a mortification to me to find that a few
fugitive speculations in a newspaper had excited your curiosity
to inquire after me. The production, which some person in
England, I know not who, has been pleased to entitle " A Dis-
sertation on the Canon and the Feudal Law," was written at
Braintree, about eleven miles from Boston, in the year 1765 ; —
written at random, weekly, without any preconceived plan,
printed in the newspapers without correction, and so little
noticed or regarded here, that the author never thought it
worth his while to give it either a title or a signature. And,
indeed, the editor in London might with more propriety have
called it " The — what d'ye call it," or, as the Critical Reviewers
did, " a flimsy, lively rhapsody," than by the title he has given
it. But it seems it happened to hit the taste of some one, who
has given it a longer duration than a few weeks, by printing it
in conjunction with the letters of the House of Representatives
of this province, and by ascribing it to a very venerable, learned
name. I am very sorry that Mr. Gridley's name was affixed to
it for many reasons. The mistakes, inaccuracies, and want of
arrangement in it are utterly unworthy of Mr. Gridley's great
and deserved character for learning, and the general spirit and
sentiments of it are by no means reconcilable to his known
opinions and principles in politics. It was, indeed, written by
your present correspondent, who then had formed designs which
he never has and never will attempt to execute. Oppressed
and borne down, as he is, by the infirmities of ill health, and
the calls of a numerous, growing family, whose only hopes are
in his continual application to the drudgeries of his profession,
CORRESPONDENCE. 333
it is almost impossible for him to pursue any inquiries or to
enjoy any pleasures of the literary kind.^
However, he has been informed that you have in contempla-
tion a history of the present reign, or some other history in
which the affairs of America are to have a share. If this is
true, it would give him infinite pleasure ; and, whether it is so
or not, if he can by any means in his power, by letters or other
ways, contribute any thing to your assistance in any of your
inquiries, or to your amusement, he will always esteem himself
very happy in attempting it.
Pray excuse the trouble of this letter, and believe me, with
great esteem and admiration, &c.
TO JAMES WARREN.
Boston, 17 December, 1773.
The die is cast. The people have passed the river and cut
away the bridge. Last night three cargoes of tea were emptied
into the harbor. This is the grandest event which has ever yet
happened since the controversy with Britain opened. The
sublimity of it charms me ! ^
For my part, I cannot express my own sentiments of it better
than in the words of Colonel D. to me, last evening. Balch
should repeat them. " The worst that can happen, I think,"
said he, " in consequence of it, will be that the province must
pay for it. Now, I think the province may pay for it, if it is
drowned, as easily as if it is drunk ; and I think it is a matter
of indifference whether it is drunk or drowned. The province
must pay for it in either case. But there is this difference ; I
believe it will take them ten years to get the province to pay
for it; if so, we shall save ten years' interest of the money,
whereas, if it is drunk, it must be paid for immediately." Thus
he. — However, he agreed with me, that the province would
never pay for it; and also in this, that the final ruin of our con-
^ Mrs. Macaulay, in her reply, notices this in the following manner : — •
" You must give me leave to say, that on the principle of having a right to
treat your own performances with freedom, you have not done common justice
to the work entitled, 'A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Laws.' "
2 The same train of reflection is in the Diary of this date. Volume ii. p. 323.
334 CORRESPONDENCE.
stitution of government, and of all American liberties, would
be the certain consequence of suffering it to be landed.
Governor Hutchinson and his family and friends will never
have done with their sfood services to Great Britain and the
colonies. But for him, this tea might have been saved to the
East India Company. Whereas this loss, if the rest of the
colonies should follow our example, will, in the opinion of many
persons, bankrupt the company. However, I dare say, the
governor and consignees and custom-house officers in the other
colonies will have more wisdom than ours have had, and take
effectual care that their tea shall be sent back to England un-
touched ; if not, it will as surely be destroyed there as it has
been here.
Threats, phantoms, bugbears, by the million, will be invented
and propagated among the people upon this occasion. Indivi-
duals will be threatened with suits and prosecutions. Armies
and navies will be talked of. Military executions, charters an-
nulled, treason trials in England, and all that. But these terms
are all but imaginations. Yet, if they should become realities,
they had better be suffered than the great principle of parlia-
mentary taxation be given up.
The town of Boston never was more still and calm of a Sa-
turday night than it was last night. All things were conducted
with great order, decency, and perfect submission to government.
No doubt we all thought the administration in better hands
than it had been.
TO JAMES WARREN.
Boston, 22 December, 1773.
Yesterday the Governor called a council at Cambridge. Eight
members met at Brattle's. This, no doubt, was concerted last
Saturday, at Neponset hill, where Brattle and Russel dined, by
way of caucus, I suppose.^ Sewall dined with their honors
yesterday. But behold, what a falling off was there ! The
Governor, who last Friday was fully persuaded and told the
1 The Governor says that this was an attempt to convene the council, but it
failed.
CORRESPONDENCE. 335
council that some late proceedings were high treason, and pro-
mised them the attendance of the attorney-general to prove it
them out of law books,i now, such is his alacrity in sinking,
was rather of opinion they were burglary. I suppose he meant
what we call New England burglary, that is, breaking open a
shop or ship, &c., which is punished with branding, &c.
But the council thought it would look rather awkward to
issue a proclamation against the whole community, and there-
fore contented themselves with ordering Mr. Attorney to prose-
cute such as he should know or be informed of. They have
advised a prorogation of the General Court for a fortnight. It is
whispered that the Sachem has it in contemplation to go home
soon, and perhaps the prorogation is to give him time to get
away. Few think he will meet the House again.
The spirit of liberty is very high in the country, and universal.
Worcester is aroused. Last week a monument to liberty was
erected there in the heart of the town, within a few yards of
Colonel Chandler's door. A gentleman of as good sense and
character as any in that county, told me this day, that nothing
which has been ever done, is more universally approved, ap-
plauded, and admired than these last efforts. He says, that
whole towns in that county were on tiptoe to come down.
Make my compliments to Mrs. Warren, and tell her that I
want a poetical genius to describe a late frolic among the sea-
nymphs and goddesses. There being a scarcity of nectar and
ambrosia among the celestials of the sea, Neptune has deter-
mined to substitute Hyson and Congo, and, for some of the
inferior divinities, Bohea. Amphitrite, one of his wives, viz.
the land, and Salaria, another of his wives, the sea, went to
pulling caps upon the occasion, but Salaria prevailed. The
Sirens should be introduced somehow, I cannot tell how, and
Proteus, a son of Neptune, who could sometimes flow like
water, and sometimes burn like fire, bark like a dog, howl like
a wolf, whine like an ape, cry like a crocodile, or roar like a
lion. But, for want of this same poetical genius, I can do no-
thing. I wish to see a late glorious event celebrated J)y a
certain poetical pen which has no equal that I know of in this
country.
1 See the Diary, vol. ii. p. 325, and compare Hutchinson's account of this
conference in the third volume of his HiMory, p. 439.
o«
36 CORRESPONDENCE.
We are anxious for the safety of the cargo ^ at Provincetown.
Are there no Vineyard, Marshpee, Mattapoiset Indians, do you
think, who will take the care of it, and protect it from violence?
I mean from the hands of tyrants and oppressors, who want to
do violence with it to the laws and constitution, to the present
age, and to posterity.
I hope you have had a happy anniversary festival. May a
double portion of the genius and spirit of our forefathers rest
upon us and our posterity !
TO JAMES WARREN.
Boston, 9 April, 1774.
Dear Sir, — It is a great mortification to me to be obliged
to deny myself the pleasure of a visit to my friends at Plymouth
next week ; but so fate has ordained it. I am a little appre-
hensive, too, for the State, upon this occasion, for it has hereto-,
fore received no small advantage from our sage deliberations at
your fireside.
I hope Mrs. Warren is in fine health and spirits ; and that I
have not incurred her displeasure by making so free with the
skirmish of the sea-deities, one of the most incontestable evi-
dences of real genius which has yet been exhibited. For to
take the clumsy, indigested conception of another, and work it
into so elegant and classical a composition, requires genius
equal to that which wrought another most beautiful poem out
of the little incident of a gentleman's clipping a lock of a lady's
hair with a pair of scissors. May a double portion of her
genius, as well as virtues, descend to her posterity, which, united
to the patriotism, &c,, &c., &c., of &c., &c., &c., will make
But I am almost in the strains of Hazelrod.^
The tories were never, since I was born, in such a state of
humiliation as at this moment. Wherever I go, in the seve-
ral counties, I perceive it more and more. They are now in
1 The fourth and last vessel was driven ashore on Cape Cod. Some of the
tea was saved, sent to Boston, and landed at the castle.
2 The name of a character in the dramatic piece, written by Mrs. Warren,
entitled The Group, and designed to ridicule the leading loyalists of the colony.
CORRESPONDENCE. 337
absolute despair of obtaining a triumph without shedding an
abundance of blood ; and they are afraid of the consequences
of this. Not that their humanity starts at it at all. The com-
plaisance, the air of modesty and kindness to the Whigs, the
show of moderation, the pains to be thought friends to liberty,
and all that, is amazing. I admire the Jesuits ! The science
is so exquisite, and there are such immense advantages in it,
that it is (if it were not for the deviltry of it) most ardently to
be wished. To see them bowing, smiling, cringing, and seem-
ing cordially friendly, to persons whom they openly avowed their
malice against two years ago, and Avhom they would gladly
butcher now, is provoking, yet diverting.
News we have none. Still! silent as midnight! The first
vessels may bring us tidings which will erect the crests of
the tories again, and depress the spirits of the whigs. For
my own part, 1 am of the same opinion that I have been for
many years, that there is not spirit enough on either side to
bring the question to a complete decision, and that we shall
_oscillate like a pendulum, and fluctuate like the ocean, for
jnan^ years to come, and never obtain a complete redress of
American grievances, nor submit to an absolute establishment
of parliamentary authority, but be trimming between both, as
we have been for ten years past, for more years to come than
you and I shall live. Our children may see revolutions, and be
_concerned and active in effecting them, of which we can form
no conception.
TO WILLIAM WOODFALL.
Boston, 14 May, 1774.
I had the pleasure of receiving your favor of the 12th of
March yesterday, for which I thank you. Your plan of a
newspaper to profess itself a general channelof American intel-
ligence, is happily calculated, I think, to serve the interest both
of the British and the American public.^
If it should be in my power at any time to communicate to
1 Mr. Woodfall had sent out a copy of his proposals to publish a newspaper,
designed to be a general channel of American intelligence, and to be called the
London Packet. '■
VOL. IX. 29 V
338 CORRESPONDENCE.
you any material intelligence, I shall be glad of the opportunity;
but I have very little connection with public affairs, and I ho^e^
to have less^
Indeed, the treatment we receive from our mother country,
as we have always fondly called her, begins to discourage
persons here from making any applications to her, upon any
occasion or for any purpose. Intelligence, evidence, petitions,
are sent continually, and have been sent for ten years, to no
purpose. We begin almost to wish that Europe could for-
get that America was ever discovered, and America could forget
that Europe ever existed.
The unexampled bjx)ckade of_Boston is received here with a
spirit of martyrdom. It will produce effects such as were not
foreseen by the minister of State who projected it, or by the
abandoned men in America, who suggested the project to him.
Nero wished that the inhabitants of Rome had but one neck,
that he might have the pleasure of cutting it off with his own
hand at one blow. This, as it would have speedily terminated
their misery, was humanity in comparison of the minister's pro-
ject of turning famine into a populous city to devour its devoted
inhabitants by slow torments and lingering degrees.
P. S. The commerce of this town of itself has been an essen-
tial link in a vast chain, which has made New England what it
is, the southern provinces what they are, the West India islands
what they are, and the African trade what that is, to say no
more. The world will very soon see with horror, that this chain
is broken by one blow.
TO JAMES WARREN.
Ipswich, 25 June, 1774.
I am very sorry I had not the pleasure of seeing you after
your return from Salem, as I wanted a great deal of conversa-
tion with you on several subjects.
The principal topic, however, was the enterprise to Philadel-
phia. I view the assembly, that is to be there, as I do the
court^ofj\^eopagus, the council of the Amphictyons, a conclave,
CORRESPONDENCE. 339
a sanhedrim, a divan, I know not what. I suppose you sent
me there to school. I thank you for thinking me an apt scholar,
or capable of learning. For my own part, I am at a loss, totally
at a loss, what to do when we get there ; but I hope to be there
taught.
It is to be a school of political prophets, I suppose, a nursery
of American Statesmen. May it thrive and prosper and flourish,
and from this fountain may there issue streams, which shall
gladden all the cities and towns in North America, forever ! I
am for making it annual, and for sending an entire new set
every year, that all the principal geniuses may go to the univer-
sity in rotation, that we may have politicians in plenty. Our
great complaint is the scarcity of men fit to govern such mighty
interests as are clashing in the present contest. A scarcity
indeed ! For who is sufficient for these things ? Our policy
must be to improve every opportunity and means for forming
our people, and preparing leaders for tliem in the grand march
of politics.. We must make our children travel. You and I
have too many cares and occupations, and therefore we must
recommend it to Mrs. Warren, and her friend Mrs. Adams, to
teach our sons the divine science of the politics ; and to be
frank, I suspect they understand it better than we do.
There is one ugly reflection. Brutus and Cassius were con-
quered and slain. Hampden died in the field, Sidney on the
scaffold, Harrington in jail, &c. This is cold comfort. Politics
are an ordeal path among red hot ploughshares. Who, then
would be a politician for the pleasure of running about barefoot
among them ? Yet somebody must. And I think those whose
characters, circumstances, educations, &c., call them, ought to
follow.
Yet I do not think that one or a few men are under any
moral obliijation to sacrifice for themselves and families all the
pleasures, profits, and prospects of life, while others for whose
benefit this is to be done lie idle, enjoying all the sweets of
society, accumulating wealth in abundance, and laying founda-
tions for opulent and poM''erful families for many generations.
No. I think the arduous duties of the times ought to be dis-
charged in rotation, and I never will engage more in politics
but upon this system.
I must entreat the favor of your sentiments and Mrs. Warren's
340 CORRESPONDENCE.
what is proper, practicable, expedient, wise, just, good, neces-
sary to be done at Philadelphia. Pray let me have them in a
letter before I go.^
TO JOHN TUDOR.
Braintree, 23 July, 1774.
You will be surprised, I believe, to receive a letter from me,
upon a matter which I have so little right to intermeddle with
as the subject of this. I am sensible it is a subject of very
great delicacy ; but as it is of equal importance to your own
happiness and that of your only son, I hope and believe you will
receive it, as it is really meant, as an expression of my friend-
ship both to yourself and him, without any other view or motive
whatever.^
Your son has never said a word to me, but, from what I have
accidentally heard from others, I have reason to believe that he
is worried and uneasy in his mind. This discontent is in dan-
ger of producing very disagreeable effects, as it must interrupt
his happiness, and as it may, and probably will, if not removed,
injure his health, and, by discouraging his mind and depressing
his spirits, disincline him to, or disqualify him for, his studies
and business.
I believe, Sir, you are not so sensible as I am of the difficulty
of a young gentleman's getting into much business in the prac-
tice of the law. It must, in the best of times and for the most
promising genius, be a work of time. The present situation of
public affairs is such as has rendered this difficulty tenfold greater
than ever. The grant from the crown of salaries to the judges,
the proceedings of the two houses of assembly in relation to it,
and the general discontent throughout all the counties of the
1 Compare the Diary of the same date. Vol. ii. p. 338. A letter of similar
purport seems to have been addressed to Joseph Hawley from this place two
days later, but no copy remains. See p. 342.
^ William Tudor, the young man here mentioned, bad been a student in the
office of the writer. An interesting biographical memoir of him, from which
tliis letter has been taken, is to be found in the 18th volume of the Collections
of the Massachusetts Historical Society-
CORRESPONDENCE. 341
province, among jurors and others, concerning it, had well nigh
ruined the business of all the lawyers in the government, before
the news of the three late acts of parliament arrived. These
acts had put an end to all the business of the law in Boston.
The port act of itself has done much towards this, but the other
two acts have spread throughout the province such an appre-
hension, that there will be no business for courts for some time
to come, that our business is at present in a manner at an end.
In this state of things I am sure it is impossible that your
son's income should be adequate to his necessary expenses,
however frugal he may be, and I have heard that he complains
that it is not.
The expenses for the rent of his office, for his board and
washing, must come to a considerable sum annually, without
accounting a farthing for other transient charges, which a young
gentleman of the most sober and virtuous character can no
more avoid than he can those for his bed and board. So that
it is absolutely impossible but that he must run behind hand
and be obliged to run in debt for necessaries, unless either he is
assisted by his father, or leaves the town of Boston and betakes
himself to some distant place in the country, where, if his busi-
ness should not be more, his expenses would be vastly less.
I am well aware of the follies and vices so fashionable among
many of the young gentlemen of our age and country, and, if
your son was infected with them, I would never have become
an advocate for him, without his knowledge, as I now am, with
his father. I should think, the more he was restrained the better.
But I know him to have a clear head and an honest, faithful
heart. He is virtuous, sober, steady, industrious, and constant
to his office. He is as frugal as he can be in his rank and class
of life, without being mean.
It is your peculiar felicity to have a son whose behavior and
character are thus deserving.
Now there can be nothing in this life so exquisitely painful
to such a mind, so humiliating, so mortifying, as to be distrusted
by his father, as to be obliged to borrow of strangers, or to run
in debt and lie at mercy.
A small donation of real or personal estate, made to him
now, would probably be of more service to him than ten times
that sum ten years hence. It would give him a small income
29*
342 CORRESPONDENCE.
tliat he could depend upon ; it would give him weight and repu-
tation in the world ; it would assist him greatly in getting into
business.
I am under concern lest the anxiety he now struggles with
should prove fatal to him. I have written this without his
knowledge, and I do not propose ever to acquaint him with it.
If you please you may burn this ; only I must entreat you to
believe it to flow only from real concern for a young gentleman
whom I greatly esteem.
JOSEPH HAWLEY ^ TO JOHN ADAMS.
Northampton, 25 July, 1774.
I never received nor heard of your letter of the 27th of June
last, written at Ipswich, until the 23d instant. Immediately on
the receipt of it, I set myself to consider of an answer to it.
What I first remark is, your great distrust of your abilities
for the service assigned you. Hereon I say that I imagine I
have some knowledge of your abilities, and I assure you. Sir, I
gave my vote for you most heartily, and I have not yet repented
of it. My opinion is, that our committee, taken together, is the
best we could have taken in the province. I should be ex-
tremely sorry that any one of them should fail of going. The
absence of any one of them will destroy that happy balance or
equilibrium which they will form together. I acknowledge that
the service is most important, and I do not know who is fully
equal to it. The importance of the business ought not to beget
despondency in any one, but to excite to the greatest circum-
spection, the most attentive and mature consideration, and calm-
est deliberation. Courage and fortitude must be maintained.
If we give way to despondency, it will soon be all over with us.
Rashness must be avoided. The end or effect of every measure
proposed, must be thoroughly contemplated before it be adopted.
It must be well looked to that the measure be feasible and
practicable. If we make attempts, and fail in them, Lord
^ Of this remarkable man, it is to be regretted that so few traces remain. Even
under the pen of an enemy like Hutchinson, his character shines like burnished
gold.
CORRESPONDENCE. 343
North will call them impudent and futile, and the tories will
triumph.
It appears to me, Sir, that the Congi-ess ought first to settle
with absolute precision, the object or objects to be pursued; as
whether the end of all shall be the repeal of the tea duty only,
or of that and the molasses act, or these and opening the port of
Boston, or these and also the restoration of the charter of the Mas-
sachusetts Bay (for it is easy to demonstrate that the late act
for regulation, &c., in its effect, annuls the whole charter, so far
as the charter granted any privileges). When the objects or
ends to be pursued are clearly and certainly settled, the means
or measures to be used to obtain and effect those ends can be
better judged of. Most certainly the objects must be definitely
agreed on, and settled by Congress, first or last.
As to means and measures, I am not fully settled or deter-
mined in my own mind. It may not be prudent fully to ex-
plain myself in writing upon that head. The letter may mis-
carry.
You are pleased to say that extremities and ruptures it is our
policy to avoid. I agree it, if any other means will answer our
ends, or if it is plain that they would not. But let me say. Sir,
that with me it is settled as a maxim and first truth, that the
people or State who will not or cannot defend their liberties and
rights, will not have any for any long time. They will be slaves.
Some other State will find it out, and will subjugate them.
You say. Sir, that measures to check and interrupt the torrent
of luxury, are most agreeable to your sentiments. Pray, Sir,
did any thing ever do it, but necessity ?
The institution of annual Congresses, you suppose, will
brighten the chain, and would make excellent statesmen and
politicians. I agree it. But pray. Sir, do not you imagine that
such an institution would breed extremities and ruptures ? It
appears to me most clear that the institution, if formed, must
be discontinued, or we must defend it with ruptures.
I suggested above that my letter might miscarry ; and we do
not know, when we write, to what hands our letters may come.
I should therefore be extremely glad to see some, or all of the
committee, as they pass through this county. If there were
any hopes of obtaining the favor, I would beg them all to come
through Northampton. It would not be more than twenty
344 CORRESPONDENCE.
miles farther, and as good a road. But I imagine they will all
pass through Springfield. And the favor I earnestly ask of you,
Sir, is, that you would be pleased to inform by a letter by our
post, what day you expect to be at Springfield, and I will en-
deavor to see the committee then, although I should wait there
two or three days for it. Pray, Sir, do not fail of sending me
this intelligence. You will probably receive this letter on Satur-
day this week, by Mr. Wilde, our post. He keeps Sabbath at
Boston. He commonly comes out on Monday, about eleven
o'clock. You may find him, or if you leave a letter for him, to
take either at Messrs. Edes & Gill's office, or at Messrs. Fleets,
in the forenoon, it will probably come safe to me next week on
Wednesday. I will prevail with him, if I can, to call on you
to take a line from you for me. Information of the time you
intend to be at Springfield, I am very anxious to obtain. Pray,
Sir, oblige me with it.
But as it is possible that I may miss of seeing the commit-
tee, or any of them, Avhich will indeed be to me a very great
disappointment, I ask leave to make myself free enough to sug-
gest the following, which, if you judge proper, I consent you
should communicate to your brethren. You cannot. Sir, but
be fully apprised, that a good issue of the Congress depends a
good deal on the harmony, good understanding, and I had al-
most said brotherly love, of its members ; and every thing tend-
ing to beget and improve such mutual affection, and indeed to
cement the body, ought to be practised ; and every thing in the
least tending to create disgust or strangeness, coldness, or so
much as indifference, carefully avoided. Now there is an opi-
nion which does in some degree obtain in the other colonies,
that the Massachusetts gentlemen, and especially of the town
of Boston, do affect to dictate and take the lead in continental
measures ; that we are apt, from an inward vanity and self-con-
ceit, to assume big and haughty airs. Whether this opinion
has any foundation in fact, I am not certain. Our own tories
propagate it, if they did not at first suggest it. Now I pray
that every thing in the conduct and behaviour of our gentle-
men, which might tend to beget or strengthen such an opinion,
might be most carefully avoided. It is highly probable, in my
opinion, that you^will meet gentlemen from several of the oth^^
colonies, fully equal to yourselves or any of you, in their know-_
CORRESPONDENCE. 345
ledge of Great Britain, the colonies, law, history, government,
commerce, &c. I know some of the gentlemen of Connecticut
are very sensible, ingenious, solid men. Who will go from New
York, I have not heard, but I know there are very able men
there ; and by what we from time to time see in the public
papers, and what our assembly and committees have received
from the assemblies and committees of the more southern colo-
nies, we must be satisfied that they have men of as much sense
and literature as any we can or ever could boast of. But
enough of this sort, and 1 ask pardon that I have said so much
of it.
Another thing I beg leave just to hint; — that it is very likely
that you may meet divers gentlemen in Congress, who are of
Dutch, or Scotch, or Irish extract. Many more there are in those
southern colonies of those descents, than in these New England
colonies, and many of them very worthy, learned men. Quaere,
therefore, whether prudence would not direct that every thing
should be very cautiously avoided which could give any the
least umbrage, disgust, or affront to any of such pedigree. For
as of every nation and blood, he that feareth God and worketh
righteousness, is accepted of him, so they ought to be of us.
Small things may have important effects in such a business.
That which disparages our family ancestors or nation, is apt to
stick by us, if cast up in comparison, and their blood you will
find as warm as ours.
One thing I want that the southern gentlemen should be
deeply impressed with ; that is, that all acts of British legisla-
tion which influence and affect our internal polity, are as abso-
lutely repugnant to liberty and the idea of our being a free peo-
ple, as taxation or revenue acts. Witness the present regulation
act for this province ; and, if we shall not be subdued by what
is done already, like acts will undoubtedly be made for other
colonies. I expect nothing but new treasons, new felonies, new
misprisions, new praemunires, and, not to say the Lord, the devil
knows what.
Pray, Sir, let Mr. Samuel Adams know that our top Tories
here give out most confidently, that he will certainly be taken
up before the Congress. I am not timid with regard to myself
or friends, but I am satisfied that they have such advice from
head-quarters. Please to give my hearty regards to him, the
346 CORRESPONDENCE.
Speaker, and all the gentlemen of the Congress ; and I beg that
neither of them would on any account make default. If they
do, there will be great searchings of heart. You may all manage
the journey so that it will be pleasant, and very much serve
your health. And that God would bless you all, is the most
fervent prayer of, Sir,
Your hearty friend, &c.
Joseph Hawley.
Pray, Sir, do not fail of acquainting me when you shall be
in our county .^
TO WILLIAM TUDOR.
PMlaclelphia, 29 September, 1774.
I wish it was in my power to write you any thing for the re-
lief of your anxiety, under the pressure of those calamities
which now distress our beloved town of Boston and province
of Massachusetts. The sentiments expressed in your last to
me, are such as would do honor to the best of citizens, in the
minds of the virtuous and worthy, of any age or country, in the
worst of times. Dulce et deconmi est pro patrid mori.
Would'st thou receive tliy country's loud applause,
Lov'd as her father, as her God ador'd ?
Be thou the bold assertor of her cause,
Her voice in council ; in the fight, her sword.
You have no adequate idea of the pleasures or the difficulties
of the errand I am now upon. The Congress is such an assem-
bly as never before came together, on a sudden, in any part of
the world. JHere are fortunesj abilities, learning, eloquence,
acuteness, equal to any I ever met with in my life. Here is a
diversity of religions, educations, manners, interests, such as it
would seem almost impossible to unite in one plan of conduct
Every question is discussed with a moderation, an acuteness,
and a minuteness equal to that of Queen Elizabeth's privy
' The delegates did not pass through Springfield. Mr. Hawley, being disap-
pointed in meeting with them, and being desirous to communicate his views of
the measures to be pursued at this crisis, sent them the remarkable paper enti-
tled " Broken hints, to be communicated to the committee of Congress for the
]Vlassachusetts," which is inserted in the appendix (A) to this volume.
CORRESPONDENCE. 347
council. This occasions infinite delays. We are under obliga-
tions of secrecy in every thing, except the single vote you have
seen, approving the resolutions of the county of Suffolk. What
effect this vote may have with you, is uncertain. What you
will do, God knows. You say you look up to the Congress.
It is well you should ; but I hope you will not expect too much
from us. The delegates here are not sufficiently acquainted
with our province, and with the circumstances you are in, to
form a judgment what course it is proper for you to take. They
start at the thought of taking up the old charter ; they shudder
at the prospect of blood ; yet they are unanimously and unal-
terably against your submission to any of the Acts for a single
moment.
You see by this what they are for ; namely, that you stand
stock still, and live without government or law, at least for the
present, and as long as you can. I have represented to them,
whenever I see them, the utter impossibility of four hundred
thousand people existing long without a legislature, or courts
of justice. They all seem to acknowledge it, yet nothing can
as yet be accomplished.
We hear perpetually the most figurative panegyrics upon our
wisdom, fortitude, and temperance ; the most fervent exhorta-
tions to perseverance ; but nothing more is done.
I may venture to tell you that I believe we shall agree to non-
importation, non-consumption, and non-exportation, but not to
commence so soon as I could wish.
Indeed all this would be insufficient for your purpose ; a more
adequate support and relief to the Massachusetts should be
adopted. But I tremble for fear we should fail of obtaining it.
There is, however, a most laudable zeal, and an excellent
spirit, which every day increases, especially in this city. The
Quakers had a general meeting last Sunday, and are deeply af-
fected with the complexion of the times. They have recom-
mended to all their people to renounce tea ; and indeed the
people of this city, of all denominations, have laid it generally
aside, since our arrival here. They are about setting up com-
panies of cadets, volunteers, &c., &c.
It is the universal opinion here, that General Gage is in the
horrors, and that he means to act only on the defensive. How
well this opinion is founded, you can judge better than I.
348 CORRESPONDENCE.
I must beseech you to show this letter to no man in whom
you have not the most perfect confidence. It may do a great
deal of mischief.
We have had numberless prejudices to remove here. We
have been obliged to act with great delicacy and caution. We
have been obliged to keep ourselves out of sight, and to feel
pulses, and to sound the depths ; to insinuate our sentiments,
designs, and desires, by means of other persons, sometimes of
one province, and sometimes of another. A futvire opportunity
in conversation will, I hope, make you acquainted with all.
TO EDWARD BIDDLE.^
Bralntree, 12 December, 1774.
I received your kind favor of 16th ultimo, with great pleasure,
last week, at Cambridge. I rejoice at the proofs your city has
given of her inflexible attachment to the public cause, and de-
termination to support it. There are many names in your list
of committee men, which I had not the pleasure of knowing ;
but there are abilities, vu-tues, and spirit enough, in those whom
I know very well, to secure the good behaviour of any commit-
tee which could, I think, be chosen in your and my beloved
city.
The letter to Quebec shall be faithfully and speedily for-
warded. Our provincial Congress, and the committee of cor-
respondence in Boston, have had under consideration various
' The address of this letter does not appear upon the imperfect draught that
has been preserved. It is now given by conjecture from the context. That the
person must have been one of the seven delegates of Pennsylvania to the first
Congress, is obvious. Of these it could not have been Galloway, or Ross,_ or
Dickinson, for they are mentioned in the third person. The reason for selecting
Mr. Biddle from the four remaining is, that he was on the committee which re-
ported the bin of rights alluded to In the last paragraph, and therefore familiar
with the writer's relation to the fourth article ; and that the business not com-
pleted by the Congress, seems to have been left in his care. He was chair-
man, with Messrs. Dickinson and Thomson, herein alluded to together, to superin-
tend the publication of the journal ; and probably likewise had charge of the
distribution of the letter to Quebec. It must have been In this capacity that he
addressed the letter to Mr. Adams, to which this is the reply ; as the Congress
had recommended that the delegates of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and
New York, should assist in the dispersion of that document. By a memorandum
inserted in the American Archives, it appears that three hundred copies had
been forwarded to Boston on the 16th of November.
CORRESPONDENCE. 349
plans for opening a communication with several parts of that
province.
You kindly inquire what we are doing or suffering. You
will see by a printed pamphlet, which I will send you as soon
as it is out, what our provincial congress has been doing — that
is, you will see in part, not all. Our people, through the pro-
vince, are everywhere learning the military art — exercising per-
petually ; so that, I suppose, if occasion should require, an army
of fifteen thousand men, from this province alone, might be
brought into the field in one week.
The difficulties we suffer, however, for want of law and go-
vernment, are innumerable ; ^ total stagnation of law and com-
merce almost. No man can pay his just debts, because he can
get no business to do, by which he can earn any money, and if
he has ever so much due to him, he caimot get a shilling of it
from his debtors. We are trying, by a thousand experiments,
the ingenuity as well as virtue of our people. The effects are
such as would divert you. Imagine four hundred thousand peo-
ple without government or Taw, forming themselves in compa-
nies for various purposes, of justice, policy, and war! You
must allow for a great deal of the ridiculous, much of the me-
lancholy, and some of the marvellous. I must not be particu-
lar, because my letter may miscarry.
I have sometimes wished, since my return, that we had fallen
in, totis viribus, with the motion made by Mr. Ross, and second-
ed by Mr. Galloway, that this province should be left to her
own discretion with respect to government and justice, as well
as defence. Our provincial Congress had in contemplation
some sublime conceptions, which would in that case have been
carried rapidly into execution.
Your account of the General's intended journey to Maryland,
gave me great pleasure.^ I hope the continent wall provide
themselves, at this time, with arms and skill. No country ought
ever to be without either.
The intuitive, the holy, the decisive spirits mentioned in a
late Philadelphia paper, cannot avoid recollecting at this time,
my friend, that the Grecian commonwealths were the most
heroic confederacy that ever existed ; the politest, bravest, and
' This must have been General Charles Lee.
VOL. IX. 30
350 CORRESPONDENCE.
wisest of men. Their sculptors, painters, architects, poets, phy-
sicians, critics, historians, philosophers, orators, warriors, and
statesmen, were the brightest ornaments of their whole species,
and examples for imitation to all succeeding generations. The
period of their glory was from the defeat of Xerxes to the rise
of Alexander. Let us not be enslaved, my dear friend, either
by Xerxes or Alexander.
The town of Boston is like Zion in distress. Seneca's virtu-
ous man struggling with adversity.
Spectaculum dignum ad quod respiciat Deus.
Suffering amazing loss, but determined to endure poverty and
death, rather than betray America and posterity.
Be pleased to present my most respectful compliments and
grateful acknowledgments to Mr. Dickinson, Thomson, &c. I
have not time to name them all. I mean almost the whole
city of Philadelphia.
I should have written to you long before this, if I had not
been prevented by^an inflammation in my eyes, so violent that
I have not been able to write or read. Pray write me as often
as possible, and let me know how the fourth resolution in our
bill of rights is relished and digested among the choice spirits
along the continent. I had more anxiety about that, than all
the rest. But I find it is extremely popular here. Our provin-
cial Congress have approved and adopted it in strong terms.
They consider it as a great point gained. They think it has
placed our connection with Great Britain on its true principles,
and that there is no danger from it to us, and there is quite as
much allowed to her as either justice or policy requires.
TO JAMES BURGH.
Braintree, 28 December, 1774.
Sir, — I have had the honor of receiving from you a present,
in two volumes of Political Disquisitions. The very polite and
obliging manner in which this present was conveyed to me, de-
mands my grateful acknowledgments. But the present itself
is invaluable.
CORRESPONDENCE. 351
I cannot but think those Disquisitions the best service that a
citizen could render to his country at this great and dangerous
crisis, whenj;he British^empire seems ripe for destruction, and
tottering on the brink of a precipice. If any thing can possibly
open the eyes of the nation, and excite it to exert itself, it
nuist be such a sight of its danger, and of the imperceptible
steps by which it ascended to it.
I have contributed somewhat to make the Disquisitions more
known and attended to in several parts of America, and they
are held in as high estimation by all my friends as they are by
me. The more they are read, the more eagerly and generally
they are sought for.
We have pleased ourselves in America with hopes that the
publication of those Disquisitions, the exertions of the other
friends of virtue and freedom in England, together with the
union of sentiment and conduct of America, which appears by
the proceedings of the Congress of Philadelphia, would have
had their full operation and effect upon the nation, during the
fall and winter, while the people were canvassing for elections ;
and that, in spite of bribery, some alteration in the House of
Commons for the better might have been made. But the sud-
den dissolution of parliament, and the impatient summons for
a new election, have blasted all these hopes. We now see
plainly, that every trick and artifice of sharpers, gamblers, and
horse-jocides, is to be played off against the cause of liberty in
England and America; and that no hopes are to be left for
either but in the sword.
We are, in this province, Sir, at the brink of a civil war.
Our Alva, Gage, with his fifteen Mandamus counsellors, are
shut up in Boston, afraid to stir, afraid of their own shades,
protected with a dozen regiments of regular soldiers and strong
fortifications in the town, but never moving out of it. We
_h,ave no council,^q^jiouse^ no legislative, no executive. Not a
court of justice has sat since the month of September. Not a
debt can be recovered, nor a trespass redressed, nor a criminal
of any kind brought to punishment. What the ministry will
do next, is uncertain. Enforce the act for altering our govern-
ment they cannot; all the regiments upon the establishment
would not do it, for juries will not serve nor represent. What-
ever Alva and his troops may think of it, it has required great
352 CORRESPONDENCE.
caution and delicacy in the conduct of affairs to prevent their
destruction. For my own part, I have bent my chief attention
to prevent a rupture, and to impress my friends with the im-
portance of preventing it. Not that I think the lives of five or
ten thousand men, though my own should be one of them,
would not be very profitably spent in obtaining a restoration of
our liberties, but because I know that those lives would never
go unrevenged, and it would be vain ever to hope for a recon-
ciliation with Great Britain afterwards. Britons would not
easily forgive the destruction of their brethren ; I am absolutely
certain that New England men never would that of theirs.
Nor would any part of America ever forget or forgive the
destruction of one New England man in this cause. The death
of four or five persons, the most obscure and inconsiderable that
could have been found upon the continent, on the 5th March,
1770, has never yet been forgiven by any part of America.
What, then, would be the consequence of a battle in which
many thousands must fall, of the best blood, the best families,
fortunes, abilities, and moral characters in the country ?
America never will submit to the claims of parliament and.
administration. New England alone has two hundred thou-
sand fighting men, and all in a militia, established by law ; not
exact soldiers, but all used to arms.^
TO JAMES WARREN.
Braintree, 3 January, 1775.
Dear Sir, — I have this morning received a line from Mrs.
Warren, and will inclose her letter to Mrs. Macaulay by the
first opportunity. Be pleased to make my compliments to
Mrs. Warren.
Yesterday I had a letter from Annapolis, in Maryland, from
my friend Mr. Chase, inclosing the resolutions of their provin-
cial convention, consisting of eighty members, representing all
' Incomplete — the rest on a leaf, which has been torn off.
CORRESPONDENCE. 353
their counties. I wish I could inclose it to you, but it must be
printed here. They unanimously approve the proceedings of
the Continental Congress, and determine to carry them punc-
tually into execution ; choose the same delegates, with two new
ones, for the next Congress ; vote to kill no lambs ; to raise flour,
cotton, and hemp ; and unanimously vote a militia to be esta-
_blished through the whole province by the people themselves,
who are to choose their own officers, and all persons between
sixteen and fifty are to be embodied ; unanimously vote to raise
ten thousand pounds, to be laid out by the county committees
in arms and ammunition to be kept and disposed of by the
committees as they shall think proper; unanimously vote that
contributions for Boston be continued as long as wanted ; and
resolve unanimously, " That if the late acts of parliament rela-
tive to the Massachusetts Bay shall be attempted to be carried
into execution by force in that colony, or if the assumed power
of parliament to tax the colonies shall be attempted to be carried
into execution by force in that or any other colony, that, in such
case, this province will support such colony to the utmost of
their power;" recommend similar resolutions to all the other
colonies, and vote similar letters to be sent them.
You will soon see the whole, I hope. There is a charming
spirit in the whole, as well as in Chase's letter. He says, " he
thinks we may never have a more favorable crisis to determine
the point ; I mean the colonies will probably never be so cordially
united, and their spirits in a higher tone, than at present." He
says, that "recent advices leave us little room to hope; and we
must therefore trust to the goodness of our cause, our own vir-
tue and fortitude." He says, " he has no doubt that sentiments
equally generous and wise prevail in our colony, who have
hitherto exhibited an example of wisdom, patience, and forti-
tude, to the disgrace of the present, and the admiration of the
future generations."
We have no great news. The old rotten rascals are again
chiefly chosen.^ I have seen the list ; very few new members.
If you see Draper's papers and Mills and Hicks's, you will
observe that the arch-enemy is at work again ^ in his infernal
council at Boston.
1 To Parliament
2 The papers of Massachusettensis were in course of publication.
W
30*
354 CORRESPONDENCE.
I never think of the junto there, immured as they are, without
recollecting the infernal spirits in Milton after they had recovered
from their first astonishment arising from their fall from the
battlements of heaven to the sulphurous lake, not subdued,
though confounded, and plotting a fresh assault on the skies.
" What though the field be lost?
All is not lost ; the unconquerable will,
And study of revenge, immortal hate,
And courage never to submit or yield," &c.
" Of this be sure,
To do aught good never -will be our task,
But ever to do ill our sole delight," &c.
Is not this rather too frolicsome and triumphant for the times,
which are dull enough, and as bad as they can be? I doubt
whether war, carnage, and havoc would make us more un-
happy than this cruel state of suspense we suffer in the contern^
plation of^them in prospect. In haste.
TO JAMES WARREN.
Braintree, 15 March, 1775.
Dear Sir, — I have had the pleasure and the honor of several
letters from you, and one from an incomparable satirist of our
acquaintance, and must own myself very faulty in neglecting
so long to answer them ; but you know the infirmity of my
eyes, which still continues, and renders it very difficult for me
to discharge my debts in the literary way. The speculations
you read every week, as you say, in the papers, drop down from
the clouds.^ Is it not impossible that they should be written
without eyes ?
As to my being of the Congress, I think our town did right
in not choosing me, as they left out Thayer, and as Mr. Palmer
is as good a hand as they can employ ; and having been for
some time in the centre of all their business in the county,
town, and province, he is the best man they have. Indeed, I
' The papers of Novanglus.
CORRESPONDENCE. 355
was not at the meeting, and never had been at any meeting in
this t_o\vn for eight jears^ To say the truth, I was much averse
to being chosen, and shall continue so, for I am determined, if
things ^e settled, to avoid public life. I have neither fortune,
leisure, health, nor genius for it. Being a man of desperate
fortune, and a bankrupt in business, I cannot help putting my
hand to the pump, now the ship is in a storm, and the hold half
fall of water ; but as soon as she gets into a calm, and a place
of safety, I must leave her. At such a time as this, there are
many dangerous things to be done, which nobody else will do,
and therefore I cannot help attempting them ; but in peaceful
times there are always hands enough ready.
The accounts we have from every quarter are agreeable upon
the whole. If we are prudent, a war will break out in England
first, whatever the sanguine tories may hope, or the timid whigs
dread.
Virginia has sown her wheat instead of tobacco; and so
many of her planters have desisted from exporting the old crop,
that the vessels cannot get freight. Their men are ready to
march.
I think the petitions from Jamaica, and the behavior of the
other islands, are great events in our favor ; and on the whole,
that the measures already concerted will as certainly insure us
success as sun and rain, a deep soil and strong manure, will
produce you a crop of grass. It may take time.
The people this way rather advance in resolution, I think. I
have this day attended a town meeting, and we have voted
three companies of minute men, and an association compre-
hending that of the Congress and all the votes of the Provincial
Congress, and appointed a committee of thirty persons to see it
faithfully observed. We have a few rascally Jacobites and
Roman Catholics in this town, but they dare not show them-
selves.
The lies the tories make and spread to keep up the spirits of
their party, are ridiculous enough. Forty thousand Russians,
twenty thousand British and Irish troops, and sixteen capital
ships and a thousand cutters, and all that. Such steps would
produce another revolution.
I hope to have the pleasure of an evening with you in your
way to Concord. Pray take a bed here.
356 CORRESPONDENCE.
My most friendly regards to a certain lady. Tell her that
God Almighty (I use a bold style) has intrusted her with pow-
ers for the good of the world, which in the course of his pro-
vidence he bestows upon very few of the human race ; that
instead of being a fault to use them it would be criminal to
neglect them.
TO MOSES GILL.^
Philadelphia, 10 June, 1775.
Dear Sir, — It would be a relief to my mind, if I could write
freely to you concerning the sentiments, principles, facts, and
arguments which are laid before us in Congress ; but injunc-
tions and engagements of honor render this impossible. What
1 learn out of doors among citizens, gentlemen, and persons of
all denominations, is not so sacred. I find that the general
sense abroad is, to prepare for a vigorous defensive war,^ but at
the same time to keep open the door of reconciliation ; to hold
the sword in one hand and the olive branch in the other ; to
proceed with warlike measures and conciliatory measures pari_
passu.
I am myself as fond of reconciliation, if we could reasonably
entertain hopes of it upon a constitutional basis, as any man.
But I think, if we consider the education of the sovereign, and
that the Lords, the Commons, the electors, the army, the navy,
the officers of excise, customs, &c., &c., have been now for
many years gradually trained and disciplined by corruption to
the system of the court, we shall be convinced thaMhe cancer
is too deeply rooted and too far spread to be cured by any thing
short of cutting it out entire.
We have ever found by experience, that petitions, negotia-
tions, every thing which holds out to the people hopes of a
reconciliation without bloodshed, is greedily grasped at and
relied on ; and they cannot be persuaded to think that it is so
necessary to prepare for war as it really is. Hence our present
scarcity of powder, &c.
' This letter was addressed to Mr. Gill as chairman of the committee of sup-
plies, at Cambridge, and is preserved in the archives of Massachusetts.
CORRESPONDENCE. 357
However, this continent is a vast, unwieldy machine. We
cannot force events. We must suffer people to take their own
way in many cases, when we think it leads wrong, hoping,
however, and believing that our liberty and felicity will be pre-
served in the end, though not in the speediest and surest manner.
In my opinion, powder and artillery are the most efficacious,
sure, and infallible conciliatory measures we can adopt.
Pray write me by every opportunity, and beseech my friends
to write. Every letter I receive does great good. The gentle-
man to whom most letters from our province are addressed, has
not leisure to make the best use of them.
There are three powder mills in this province, two in New
York, but no nitre. Cannot the Massachusetts begin to pre-
pare both ? Pray Avrite me minutely the state of the people of
Boston and our army.
Pray let me know if Mr. Gill and Mr. Boylston are out of
prison. I have never heard, and have suffered much anxiety on
their account. My best respects to them, if they are to be seen
by you.
TO ELBRIDGE GERRY.
Philadelphia, 18 June, 1775.
Dear Sir, — I have at last obtained liberty, by a vote of
Congress, to acquaint my friends with a few of the things' that
have been done.
The Congress have voted, or rather a committee of the whole
house have unanimously agreed, that the suni of two million
dollars be issued in bills of credit, for the redemption of which,
in a certain number of years, twelve colonies have unanimously
pledged themselves.
The Congress has likewise resolved that fifteen thousand men
shall be supported at the expense of the continent ; ten thou-
sand at Massachusetts, and five thousand at New York ; and
that ten companies of riflemen be sent immediately, six from
Pennsylvania, two from Maryland, and two from Virginia, con-
sisting of sixty-eight privates in each company, to join our army
at Boston. These are said to be all exquisite marksmen, and
858 CORRESPONDENCE.
by means of the excellence of their firelocks, as well as their
skill in the use of them, to send sure destruction to greett dis-
tances.
General Washington is chosen commander-in-chief, General
Ward the first major-general, and General Lee the second, (the
last has not yet accepted,) and Major Gates adjutant-general.
Lee and Gates are experienced officers. We have proceeded
no further as yet.
I have never, in all my lifetime, suffered more anxiety than
in the conduct of this business. The choice of officers, and
their pay, have given me great distress. Lee and Gates are offi-
cers of such great experience and confessed abilities, that I
thought their advice, in a council of officers, might be of great
advantage to us ; but the natural prejudices, and virtuous at-
tachment of our countrymen to their own officers, made me ap-
prehensive of difficulties. But considering the earnest desire
of General Washington to have the assistance of these officers,
the extreme attachment of many of our best friends in the
southern colonies to them, the reputation they would give to
our arms in Europe, and especially with the ministerial gene-
rals and army in Boston, as well as the real American merit of
them both, I could not withhold my vote from either.
The pay wdiich has been voted to all the officers, which the
Continental Congress intends to choose, is so large, that I fear
our people will think it extravagant, and be uneasy. Mr.
Adams, Mr. Paine, and myself, used our utmost endeavors to
reduce it, but in vain.
Those ideas of eg^uality, which are so agreeable to us natives
of New England, are very disagreeable to many gentlemen in
the other colonies. They had a great opinion of the high im-
portance of a continental general, and were determined to place
him in an elevated point of light. They think the Massachu-
setts establishment too high for the privates, and too low for
the officers, and they would have their own way.
I hope the utmost politeness and respect will be shown to
these officers on their arrival. The whole army, I think, should
be drawn up upon the occasion, and ail the pride, pomp, and
circumstance of glorious war displayed ; — no powder burned^
however.
There is something charming to me in the conduct of Wash-
CORllESPONDENCE. 359
ington. A gentleman of one of the first fortunes upon the con-
tinent, leaving his delicious retirement, his family and friends,
sacrificing his ease, and hazarding all in the cause of his coun-
try ! His views are noble and disinterested. He declared, when
he accepted the mighty trust, that he would lay before us an
exact account of his expenses, and not accept a shilling for_
pay. The express waits.
TO GEORGE WASHINGTON.^
Philadelphia, June, 1775.
In compliance with your request, I have considered of what
you proposed, and am obliged to give you my sentiments very
briefly, and in great haste.
In general. Sir, there will be three committees, either of a
Congress, or of a House of Representatives, which are and will
be composed of our best men, such whose judgment and integ-
rity may be most relied on. I mean the committee on the state
of the province, the committee of safety, and the committee
of supplies.
But lest this should be too general, I beg leave to mention
particularly James Warren, Esquire, of Plymouth, Joseph Haw-
ley, Esquire, of Northampton, John Winthrop, Esquire, LL. D.,
of Cambridge, Dr. Warren, Dr. Church, Colonel Palmer, of
Braintree, Elbridge Gerry, Esquire, of Marblehead. Mr. Bow-
doin, Mr. Sever, Mr. Dexter, lately of the council, will be found
to be very worthy men, as well as Mr. Pitts, who, I am sorry to
hear, is in ill health. The recommendations of these gentlemen
may be relied on.
Our president was pleased to recommend to you Mr. William
Bant for one of your aides-de-camp. I must confess I know
not where to find a gentleman of iTiore merit, and better quali-
fied for such a place.
Mr. Paine was pleased to mention to you Mr. William Tudor,
a young gentleman of the law, for a secretary to the General.
' This is taken from -what would seem to have been the original letter, so that
it is uncertain whether it was ever delivered. It may have been superseded by
a personal conference. It was written probably on the 19th or 20th.
360 CORRESPONDENCE,
And all the rest of my brothers, you may remember, very cheer-
fully concurred with him. His abilities and virtues are such, as
must recommend him to every man who loves modesty, inge-
nuity, or fidelity. But as I find an interest has been made in
behalf of Mr. Trumbull, of Connecticut, I must submit the de-
cision to your further inquiries, after you shall arrive at Cam-
bridge. Mr. Trumbull's merit is such, that I dare not say a
word against his pretensions. I only beg to say, that Mr. Tudor
is an exile from a good employment and fair prospects, in the
town of Boston, driven by that very tyranny against which we
are all contending.
There is another gentleman of liberal education and real ge-
nius, as well as great activity, who, I find, is a major in the army.
His name is Jonathan Williams Austin. I mention him, Sir, not
so much for the sake of recommending him to any particular
favor, as to give the General an opportunity of observing a youth
of great abilities, and of reclaiming him from certain follies
which have hitherto, in other departments of life, obscured him.
There is another gentleman, whom I presume to be in the
army, either as a captain, or in some higher station, whose name
is William Smith. As this young gentleman is my brother-in-
law, I do not recommend him for any other place than that in
which the voice of his country has placed him. But the coun-
tenance of the General, as far as his conduct shall deserve it,
which in an army is of great importance, will be gratefully ac-
knowledged as a particular obligation by his brother.^
With great sincerity I wish you an agreeable journey, and a
successful, a glorious campaign ; and am, with great esteem, &c.
TO JOSIAH QUINCY.
Philadelphia, 29 July, 1775.
I had yesterday the honor of yoiu" letter of July 11th,
and I feel myself much obliged by your kind attention to me
and my family, but much more by your care for the public
1 It is a curious coincidence that, Avhilst Mr. Adams, at Philadelphia, was
recommending his wife's brother to General Washington, Mrs. Adams, from
Braintree, was asking a commission for her husband's brother, in a letter to the
council yet preserved in the archives of Massachusetts.
correspondp:nce. 361
safety, and the judicious and important observations you have
made. Your letters, Sir, so far from being " a burthen," I con-
sider as an honor to me, besides the pleasure and instruction
they afford me. Believe me, Sir, nothing is of more importance
to me, in my present most arduous and laborious employment,
than a constant correspondence with gentlemen of experience,
whose characters are known. ' The minutest fact, the most tri-
vial event, that is connected with the great American cause,
becomes important in the present critical situation of affairs,
when a revolution seems to be in the designs of providence, as
important as any that ever happened in the affairs of mankind.
We jointly lament the loss of a Quincy and a Warren, two
characters as great, in proportion to their age, as any that 1 have
ever known in America. Our country mourns the loss of both,
and sincerely sympathizes with the feelings of the mother of
the one, and the father of the other. They w*ere both my inti-
mate friends, with whom I lived and conversed with pleasure
and advantage. I was animated by them in the painful, dan-
gerous course of opposition to the oppressions brought upon
our country, and the loss of them has wounded me too deeply
to be easily healed. Duke et decorum est pro patrid mori. The
ways of heaven are dark and intricate, but you may remember
the words which, many years ago, you and I fondly admired,
and which, upon many occasions, I have found advantage in
recollecting.
" Why should I grieve, when grieving I must bear,
And take with guilt, what guiltless I might share ? "
I have a great opinion of your knowledge and judgment, from
long experience, concerning the channels and islands in Boston
harbor; but I confess your opinion, that the harbor might be
blocked up, and seamen and soldiers made prisoners at discre-
tion, was too bold and enterprising for me, who am not very
apt to startle at a daring proposal ; but I believe I may safely
promise you powder enough, in a little time, for any purpose
whatever. We are assured, in the strongest manner, of salt-
petre and powder in sufficient plenty, another year, of our own
make. That both are made in this city, you may report with
confidence, for I have seen both ; and I have seen a set of very
large powder works, and another of saltpetre.
VOL. IX. 31
362 CORRESPONDENCE.
I hope, Sir, we shall never see a total stagnation of commerce
for any length of time. Necessity will force open our ports ;
trade, if I mistake not, will be more free than usual. Your
friend. Dr. Franklin, to whom I read your letter, and who de-
sires his kind compliments to you, has been employed in direct-
ing the construction of row-galleys for this city. The committee
of safety for this province have ordered twenty of them to be
built ; some of them are finished. I have seen one of them ; it
has twelve oars on each side. They rowed up the river the
first time, four miles in an hour, against a tide which ran down
four miles an hour. The Congress have recommended to the
colonies to make provision for the defence of their navigation
in their harbors, rivers, and on their sea-coasts. Of a floating
battery I have no idea — am glad you are contriving one.
You tell me. Sir, that General Lee complained that " he did
not find things as the Massachusetts delegates had represented
them." What General Lee could mean by this. Sir, I know
not. What particular he found different from the representa-
tion, I do not know; nor do I know which delegate from the
Massachusetts he received a mistaken representation from. I
think he should have been particular, that he might not have
run the risk of doing an injury. If General Lee should do in-
justice to two of the Massachusetts delegates, he would commit
ingratitude at the same time ; for to two of them he certainly
owes his promotion in the American army, how great a hazard
soever they ran in agreeing to it. I know him very thoroughly,
I think, and that he will do great service in our army at the
beginning of things, by forming it to order, skill, and discipline.
But we shall soon have officers enough.
TO ELBRIDGE GERRY.
Philadelphia, 5 November, 1775.
I am under such restrictions, injunctions, and engagements
of secrecy respecting every thing which passes in Congress,
that I cannot communicate my own thoughts freely to my
friends, so far as is necessary to ask their advice and opi-
nions concerning questions, which many of them understand
CORRESrONDENCE. 363
much better than I do. This, however, is an inconvenience
which must be submitted to for the sake of superior advantages.
But I must take the liberty to say, that I think we shall soon
attend to maritime affairs and naval preparations. No great
things are to be expected at first, but out of a little a great deal
may grow.
It is very odd that I, who have spent my days in researches
and employments so very different, and who have never thought
much of old ocean, or the dominion of it, should be necessitated
to make such inquiries; but it is my fate and my duty, and
therefore I must attempt it.^
I am to inquire what number of seamen may be found in our
province, who would probably enlist in the service, either as
marines or on board of armed vessels, in the pay of the conti-
nent or in the pay of the province, or on board of privateers,
fitted out by private adventurers.
I must also entreat you to let me know the names, places of
abode, and characters of such persons belonging to any of the
seaport towns in our province, as are qualified for officers and
commanders of armed vessels.
I want to be further instructed what ships, brigantines,
schooners, &C.5 are to be found in any port of the province, to
be sold or hired out, which will be suitable for armed vessels ;
what their tonnage, the depth of water they draw, their breadth,
their decks, &c., and to whom they belong, and what is their age.
Further, what places in our province are most secure and best
accommodated for Jruilding new vessels of force, in case a
measure of that kind should be thought of.
The committee have returned much pleased with what they
have seen and heard, which shows that their embassy will be
productive of happy effects. They say the only disagreeable
circumstance was, that their engagements, haste, and constant
attention to business was such as prevented them from forming
such acquaintances with the gentlemen of our province as they
wished. But as Congress was waiting for their return before
they could determine upon affairs of the last moment, they had
not time to spare.^
1 Compare the Autobiograpliy, vol. iii. pp. 6-11.
2 Mr. Lynch, Dr. Frankhn, and Mr. Harrison had been chosen a committee
of Congress, to repair to camp at Cambridge, on business connected with the
maintenance of the army.
364 CORRESPONDENCE.
They are pretty well convinced, I believe, of several import-
ant points, which they and others doubted before.
New Hampshire has leave to assume a government, and so
has South Carolina ; but this must not be freely talked of as
yet, at least from me.
New England will now be able to exert her strength, which
a little time will show to be greater than either Great Britain
or America imagines. I give you joy of the agreeable prospect
in Canada. We have the colors of the seventh regiment as the
first fruits of victory.
JOSEPH HAWLEY TO JOHN ADAMS.
Brookfield, 14 November, 1775.
En passant, as Church said in his letter to the regulars,
" remember, I never deceived you." If your Congress does not
give better encouragement to the privates than at present is
held forth to them, you will have no winter army. There must
be some small bounty given them on the enlistment. A
strange mistaken opinion obtains among the gentlemen of the
army from the southward, and if I mistake not, in your Con-
gress, that our privates have too high wages, and the officers
too low.
Another thing I just hint. That if your Congress go about
to repeal or explain away the resolutions of the 18th of July
last, respecting the method of appointing military officers, and
vest our council solely with that power, it will throw the colony
into the utmost confusion, and end in the destruction of the
council.^ I have wrote Mr. S. Adams on the last head. I am
with great regard,^ &c.
Joseph Hawley.
I 1 The resolutions relating to this point are as follows :
" That all officers above the rank of a captain be appointed by the respective
provincial assemblies or conventions, or in their recess by the committees of
safety appointed by said assemblies or conventions.
" Where, in any colony, a militia is already formed under regulations approved
of by the convention of such colony, or by such assemblies as arc annually
elective, we refer to the discretion of such convention or assembly, either to
adopt the foregoing regulations in the whole or in part, or to continue their
former, as they, on consideration of all circumstances, shall think best."
2 Indorsed on the back of this letter by Mr. Adams :
"Received this letter at dinner, 4 o'clock, Saturday, 25th November, 1775.
CORRESPONDENCE. 365
TO JAMES OTIS.l
Philadelphia, 23 November, 1775.
Sir, — I had the honor of your letter of November 11th by-
express, and am very sorry to learn that any difference of sen-
timent has arisen between the two honorable houses respecting
the militia bill, as it is so necessary at this critical moment for
the public service.
If I was of opinion that any resolution of Congress now in
force was against the claim of the Honorable House, as the
Honorable Board have proposed that we should lay the ques-
tion before Congress, I should think it my duty to do it. But
it appears to me that, supposing the two resolutions to clash,
the last ought to be considered as binding, and as by this, it is
left in the " discretion of the assembly either to adopt the fore-
going resolutions in the whole or in part, or to continue their
former, as they on consideration of all circumstances shall think
fit," I think it plain that the Honorable Board may comply
with the desire of the Honorable House, if in their discretion
they think fit.
I am the more confirmed in the opinion that it is unnecessary
to lay this matter before Congi-ess, as they have lately advised
the colonies of New Hampshire, and one more, if they think it
necessary, to establish such forms of government as they shall
judge best calculated to promote the happiness of the people.
Besides, the Congress are so pressed with business, and en-
gaged upon questions of greater moment, that I should be
unwilling, unless in a case of absolute necessity, to interrupt
them by a question of this kind, not to mention that I would
not wish to make known, so publicly and extensively, that a
controversy had so soon arisen between the branches of our
new government.
I have had frequent consultations with my colleagues since
Yesterday morning, i. e. Friday, November 24th, Paul Revere went off from this
jjlace with my letter to the Board, in which I gave it as my opinion that the
council might give up the point in dispute with the House about the appoint-
ment of militia officers, and that the resolution of Congress mentioned in this
letter was so clear that we need not apply to that assembly for any explanation."
' The elder, as President of the Council, which had proposed that its dispute
with the House about the right of appointing military officers should be sub-
mitted to the consideration of the continental Concress.
31*
866 CORRESPONDENCE.
the receipt of your letter upon this subject; but as we are not
unanimous,! I think it my duty to write my private sentiments
as soon as possible. If either of my colleagues shall think fit
to propose the questiooi to Congress, I shall there give my can-
did opinion, as I have done to you.
I have the honor to be, with great respect to the Honorable
Board, &c.
TO JOSEPH HAWLEY.
Philadelphia, 25 November, 1775.
This afternoon, at five o'clock, I received your kind letter of
November 14th, dated at Brookfield, which was the more agree-
able because such favors from you, short as this is, are very
rare.
You tell me. Sir, that " we shall have no winter army, if our
Congress does not give better encouragement to the privates than
at present is held forth to them," and that " there must be some
small bounty given them on the enlistment." What encourage-
ment ifi held forth, or at least has been, I know not ; but before
this time, no doubt, they have been informed of the ultimatum
of the Congress. No bounty is offered. Forty shillings lawful
money per month, after much altercation, is allowed. It is un-
doubtedly true that an opinion prevails among the gentlemen
of the army from the southward, and indeed throughout all the
colonies, excepting New England, that the pay of the privates
is too high, and that of the officers too low; so that you may
easily conceive the difficulties we have had to surmount. You
may depend upon it that this has cost many an anxious day
and night ; and the utmost that could be done, has been. We
cannot suddenly alter the temper, principles, opinions, or preju-
dices of men. The characters of gentlemen in the four New
England colonies, differ as much from those in the others, as
that of the common people differs; that is, as much as several
^ Samuel Adams wrote to the same effect. Messrs. Hancock and Gushing
were in favor of submitting the matter to the consideration of Congress, and
addressed a joint letter, explaining their -views, to the council. All the letters
are in the archives of Massachusetts.
CORRESPONDENCE. 367
distinct nations almost. Gentlemen, men of sense or any kind
of education, in the other colonies, are much fewer in proportion
than in New England.
Gentlemen in other colonies have large plantations of slaves,
and the common people among them are very ignorant and
very poor. These gentlemen are accustomed, habituated to
higher notions of themselves, and the distinction between them
and the common people, than we are. And an instantaneous
alteration of the character of a colony, and that temper and
those sentiments which its inhabitants imbibed with their mo-
ther's milk, and which have grown with their growth and
strengthened with their strength, cannot be made without a mi-
racle. I dread the consequences of this dissimilitude of charac-
ter, and without the utmost caution on both sides, and the most
considerate forbearance Avith one another, and prudent conde-
scension on both sides, they will certainly be fatal. An alter-
ation of the southern Constitutions, which must certainly take
place if this war continues, will gi-adually bring all the continent
nearer and nearer to each other in all respects. But this is the
most critical moment we have yet seen. This winter will cast
the die. For God's sake, therefore, reconcile our people to what
has been done, for you may depend upon it that nothing more
can be done here, and I should shudder at the thought of pro-
posing a bounty. A burnt child dreads the fire. The pay of
the officers is raised ; that of a captain to twenty-six dollars and
one third per month. Lieutenants and ensigns in proportion.
Regimental officers not raised.
You then hint that " if Congress should repeal or explain
away the resolutions of 18th July, respecting the appointment
of military officers, and vest the council with the sole power,
it would throw the colony into confusion, and end in the de-
struction of the council."
The day before yesterday I wrote a letter to the Honorable
Board, in answer to one from their President, by order, to us
upon that subject, which letter Revere carried from this city
yesterday morning. Therein I candidly gave my opinion to
their honors, that our resolution was clear and plain, that the
colony might use its own discretion, and therefore that they
might yield this point to the House. And that the point was
so plain, I did not see the least occasion for laying the contro-
368 CORRESPONDENCE.
versy before Congress. But, my dear friend, I must take the
freedom to tell you, that the same has happened upon this oc-
casion, which has happened upon a thousand others. After
taking a great deal of pains with my colleague, your friend Mr,
Gushing, I could not get him to agree with the rest of us in
writing a joint letter, nor could I get him to say what opinion
he would give, if it was moved in Congress. What he has
written I know not. But it is very hard to be linked and yoked
jeternally with people, who have either no opinions, or opposite
•opinions, and to be plagued with the opposition of our own
colony to the most necessary measures, at the same time that
you have all the monarchical superstition and the aristocratical
domination of nine other colonies to contend with.^
TO MRS. MERCY WARREN.^
Philadelphia, 25 Norember, 1775.
Madam, — I had the pleasure of yours of Nov. 4th, several
days ago.
You know. Madam, that I have no pleasure or amusement
which has any charms for me. Balls, assemblies, concerts,
cards, horses, dogs, never engaged any part of my attention or
concern. Nor am I ever happy in large and promiscuous com-^
_£anies. Business alone, with the intimate, unreserved conver-
sation of a very few friends, books, and familiar correspondence,
have ever engaged all my time ; and I have no pleasure, no
ease, in any other way. In this place, I have no opportunity
to meddle with books, only in the way of business. The con-
versation I have here, is all in the ceremonious, reserved, impe-
netrable way.
Thus I have sketched a character for myself, of a morose
philosopher and a surly politician, neither of which is very
amiable or respectable, but, yet there is too much truth in it,
and from it you will easily believe that I have very little plea-
sure here, excepting in the correspondence of my friends ; and
among these, I assure you, Madam, there is none whose letters
' Copy incomplete.
2 The wife of James Warren, and the sister of James Otis.
CORRESPONDENCE. 369
I read with more j)leasure and instruction than yours. I wish
it was in my power to write you oftener than 1 do, but I am
really engaged in constant business from seven to ten in the
morning in committee, from ten to four in Congress, and from
six to ten again in committee. Our assembly is scarcely nume-
rous enough for the business ; everybody is engaged, all day in
Congress, and all the morning and evening in committees. I
mention this. Madam, as an apology for not writing you so
often as I ought; and as a reason for my request that you would
not wait for my answers.
The dispute you mention between the House and Board, I
hope will be easily settled. Yet I believe the Board acted with
great honor and integrity, and with a wise design and a virtuous ■
resolution to do nothing that should endanger the Union. But
I am clear that it is best the two Houses should join in the ap-
pointment of officers of militia, and I am equally clear that the
resolve of Congress was intended to leave it to the discretion
of the colony to adopt such a mode as should please themselves ;
and I have done myself the honor to write these sentiments to
the Board, who were pleased to write to us upon the occasion.
Am obliged to you for your account of the state of things in
Boston. I am ever anxious about our friends who remain there,
and nothing is ever more acceptable to me than to learn what
passes there.
The inactivity of the two armies is not very agreeable to me.
Fabius's cunctando was wise and brave. But, if I had submit-
ted to it in his situation, it would have been a cruel mortifica-
tion to me. Zeal, and fire, and activity, and enterprise, strike
my imagination too much. I am obliged to be constantly on
my guard ; yet the heat within will burst forth at times.
The characters drawn in your last, entertained me very agree-
ably. They were taken off by a nice and penetrating eye. I
hope you will favor me with more of these characters. I wish
I could draw a number of characters for your inspection. I
should, perhaps, daub on the paint too thick, but the features
would be very strong.
The General 1 is amiable, and accomplished, and judicious,
and cool ; you will soon know the person and character of his
lady. I hope she has as much ambition for her husband's glory
^ Washington
370 CORRESPONDENCE.
as Portia and Marcia^ have, and then — the Lord have mercy
on the souls of Howe and Burgoyne, and all the troops in
Boston I
TO GEORGE WASHINGTON.
Watertown, G January, 1776.
As your Excellency has asked my opinion of General Lee's
plan, as explained in his letter of the 5th instant, I think it my
duty to give it, although I am obliged to do it in more haste
than I could wish.
I suppose the only questions which arise upon that letter, are,
whether the plan is practicable, wliether it is expedient, and
whether it lies properly within your Excellency's authority,
without further directions from Congress.
Of the practicability of it, I am very ill qualified to judge ;
but were I to hazard a conjecture, it would be, that the enter-
prise would not be attended with much difliculty. The Con-
necticut people, who are very ready upon such occasions, in
conjunction with the friends of liberty in New York, I should
think might easily accomplish the work.
That it is expedient, and even necessary to be done by some
authority or other, I believe will not be doubted by any friend
of the American caiise, who considers the vast importance of
that City, Province, and the North River, which is in it, in the
progress of this war. As it is the nexus of the northern and
southern Colonies, as a kind of key to the whole continent, as
it is a passage to Canada, to the Great Lakes, and to all the
Indian nations, no effort to secure it ought to be omitted.
That it is within the limits of your Excellency's command,
is, in my mind, perfectly clear. Your commission constitutes
you commander of all the forces now raised, or to be raised,
and of all others who shall voluntarily offer their service, and
join the army for the defence of American liberty, and for re-
pelling every hostile invasion thereof; and you are vested with
full power and authority to act as you shall think for the good
and welfare of the service.
' These were names by which ISIrs. Adams and Mrs. Warren were desig-
nated in the familiar letters of their friends during the revolution.
CORRESPONDENCE. 37I
Now if upon Long Island there is a body of people, who
have arms in their hands, and are intrenching themselves, pro-
fessedly to oppose the American system of defence, who are
supplying our enemies both of the army and navy, in Boston
and elsewhere, as I suppose is undoubtedly the fact, no man
can hesitate to say that this is a hostile invasion of American
liberty, as much as that now made in Boston. Nay, those peo-
ple are guilty of the very invasion in Boston, as they are con-
stantly aiding, abetting, comforting, and assisting the army
there, and that in the most essential manner, by supplies of
provisions.
If in the city a body of tories are waiting only for a force to
protect them, to declare themselves on the side of our enemies,
it is high time that city was secured. The Jersey troops have
already been ordered into that city by the Congress, and are
there undoubtedly under your command, ready to assist in this
service. That New York is within your command, as much
as the Massachusetts, cannot bear a question. Your Excel-
lency's superiority in the command over the Generals in the
Northern Department, as it is called, has been always carefully
preserved in Congress, although the necessity of despatch has
sometimes induced them to send instructions directly to them,
instead of first sending them to your Excellency, which would
have occasioned a circuit of many hundreds of miles, and have
lost much time.
Upon the whole. Sir, my opinion is, that General Lee's is a
very useful proposal, and will answer many good ends.
SAMUEL ADAMS TO JOHN ADAMS.
Philadelphia, 15 January, 1776.
Although I have at present but little leisure, I cannot omit
writing you a few lines by this express. I have seen certain in-
structions which were given by the capital of the colony of
New Hampshire to its delegates in their provincial congrega-
tion, the spirit of which I am not altogether pleased with.
There is one part of them, at least, which I think discovers a
372 CORRESPONDENCE.
timidity wliich is unbecoming a people oppressed and insulted
as they are, and who, at their own request, have been advised
and authorized by Congress to set up and exercise government
in such form as they should judge most conducive to their own
happiness. It is easy to understand what they mean, when
they speak of " perfecting a form of government stable and per-
manentP They indeed explain themselves, by saying that " tliey
sliould prefer the government of Congress [i\\e\x provincial con-
vention) till quieter times." The reason they assign for it, I
fear, will be considered as showing a readiness to condescend
to the humors of their enemies ; and their publicly, expressly,
and totally disavowing independence, either on the nation, or
the man who insolently and perseveringly demands the surren-
der of their liberties, with the bayonet pointed at their breasts,
may be considered to argue a servility and baseness of soul,
for which language doth not afford an epithet. It is by indis-
creet resolutions and publications, that the friends of America
have too often given occasion to their enemies to injure her
cause. I hope, however, that the town of Portsmouth doth not,
in this instance, speak the sense of that colony. I wish, if it be
not too late, that you would write your sentiments of the sub-
ject to our worthy friend, Mr. L ^ who, I suppose, is now in
Portsmouth. If that colony should take a wrong step, I fear it
would wholly defeat a design, which, I confess, I have much at
heart.^
A motion was made in Congress the other day, to the follow-
ing purpose ; " That, whereas we had been charged with aimin^;___
at independency, a committee should be appointed to explain
to the people at large, the principles and grounds of our oppo-
sition," &c. The motion alarmed me. I thought Congress had
already been explicit enough, and was apprehensive that we
might get ourselves upon dangerous ground. Some of us pre-
vailed so far as to have the matter postponed, but could not
prevent the assigning a day to consider it. I may perhaps have
been wrong in opposing this motion ; and I ought the rather to
suspect it, because the majority of your colony, as well as of
the Congress, were of a different opinion.
1 Langdou. The instructions alluded to are printed iu Force's American Ar-
chives, 4th series, vol. iv. c. 459.
2 See Gordon's History of the American War, vol. ii. pp. 1G8-171. The
author, from the coincidence in the language, must have had access to this lettei*.
CORRESPONDENCE. 373
I had lately some free conversation with an eminent gentle-
man, whom you well know, and whom your Portia in one of
her letters admired, if I recollect right, for his expressive silence,
about a confederation ; a matter which our much valued friend
Colonel W , is very solicitous to have completed.^ We
agreed that it must soon be brought on, and that if all the colo-
nies could not come into it, it had better be done by those of
them that inclined to it. I told him that I would endeavor to
unite the New England colonies in confederating, if none of the
rest would join in it. He approved of it, and said, if I suc-
ceeded, he would cast in his lot among us. Adieu.
16 January.
As this express did not set off yesterday, according to my
expectation, I have the opportunity of acquainting you, that
Congress has just received a letter from General Washington,
inclosing the copy of an application of our general assembly to
him, to order payment to four companies stationed at Braintree,
Weymouth, and Hingham. The General says they were never
regimented, and he cannot comply with the request of the as-
sembly, without the direction of Congress. A committee is
appointed to consider the letter, of which I am one. I fear
there will be a difficulty, and therefore I shall endeavor to pre-
vent a report on this part of the letter, unless I shall see a pros-
pect of justice being done to the colony, till I can receive from
you authentic evidence of those companies having been ac-
tually employed by the continental officers, as I conceive they
have been, in the service of the continent. I wish you would
inform me whether the two companies stationed at Chelsea and
Maiden were paid out of the continent's chest. I suppose
they were, and if so, I cannot see reason for any hesitation
about the payment of these. I wish also to know how many
men our colony is at the expense of maintaining for the defence
of its sea-coasts. Pray let me have some intelligence from you
of the colony which we represent. You are sensible of the
danger it has frequently been in of suffering greatly for want
of regular information.
1 The first allusion is to Dr. Franklin; the second, probably, to George
Wythe, as Gordon says the person was from Virginia.
VOL. IX.
32
374 CORRESPONDENCE.
TO JAMES OTIS.
Philadelphia, 29 April, 1776.
Sir, — As the day of the general election draws nigh, I think
it my duty to express my grateful acknowledgments to the
honorable electors of the last year, for the honor they did me in
choosing me into the council. My station in the continental
Congress has made it impossible for me to attend my duty at
the honorable board ; and as the same cause must prevent my
attendance during a great part of the ensuing year, and the
dangers and distresses of the times will require the assistance
of the whole number, I cannot think it becoming in me to de-
prive the colony of the advice of a counsellor, for the sake of
keeping open a seat for me. I must therefore beg the favor of
you, to make my resignation known to the two honorable
Houses, and request them to choose another gentleman to that
honorable seat, who will be able to discharge the duties of it.
I am, with great respect to the two honorable Houses, Sir,
your most obedient and very humble servant,
John Adams.
R. H. LEE TO JOHN ADAMS.
Williamsburgh, 18 May, 1776.
Inclosed you have a printed resolve, which passed our conven-
tion, to the infinite joy of our people. The resolve for independ-
ency has not that peremptory and decided air I could wish.^
Perhaps the proviso which reserves to this colony the power of
forming its own government, may be questionable as to its fit-
ness. Would not a uniform plan of government, prepared for
America by the Congress, and approved by the colonies, be a
surer foundation of unceasing harmony to the whole ? How^-
ever, such as they are, the exultation here was extreme. The
British flag on the capitol was immediately struck, and the
continental hoisted in its room. The troops were drawn out,
and we had a discharge of artillery and small arms.
' It is moderate in tone, but sufliciently comprehensive. It is printed in
Force's American Archives, 4th series, vol. vi. c. 1524.
CORRESPONDENCE. 375
If Hopkins's fleet were in Chesapeake Bay, Dunmore's fleet
might be taken. My compliments to Mr. S. Adams and Mr.
Paine. I am, Sir, your respectful, humble servant,
Richard H. Lee.
TO JAMES SULLIVAN.
Philadelpliia, 26 May, 1776.
Your favors of May 9th and 17th are now before me ; and I
consider them as the commencement of a correspondence which
will not only give me pleasure, but may be of service to the
public, as in my present station I stand in need of the best in-
telligence, and the advice of every gentleman of abilities and
public principles in the colony which has seen fit to place me
here.
Our worthy friend, Mr, Gerry, has put into my hands a letter
from you, of the sixth of May, in which you consider the prin-
ciples of representation and legislation, and give us hints of
"some alterations, which you seem to think necessary, in the
qualification of voters.
I wish. Sir, I could possibly find time to accompany you, in
your investigation of the principles upon which a representative
assembly stands, and ought to stand, and in your examination
whether the practice of our colony has been conformable to
those principles. But, alas ! Sir, my time is so incessantly en-
grossed by the business before me, that I cannot spare enough
to go through so large a field; and as to books, it is not easy
to obtain them here ; nor could I find a moment to look into
them, if I had them.
It is certain, in theory, that the only moral foundation of go-
vernment is, the consent of the people. But to what an ex-
tent shall we carry this principle ? Shall we say that every
individual of the community, old and young, male and female,
as well as rich and poor, must consent, expressly, to every act
of legislation ? No, you will say, this is impossible. How,
then, does the right arise in the majority to govern the minority,
against their will? Whence arises the right of the men to
govern the women, without their consent? Whence the right
of the old to bind the young, without theirs ?
i
376 CORRESFONDENCE.
But let us first suppose that the whole community, of every
age, rank, sex, and condition, has a right to vote. This com-
munity is assembled. A motion is made, and carried by a major-
ity of one voice. The minority will not agree to this. Whence
arises the right of the majority to govern, and the obligation of
the minority to obey ?
From necessity, you will say, because there can be no other
rule.
But why exclude women ?
You will say, because their delicacy renders them unfit for
practice and experience in the gi'eat businesses of life, and the
hardy enterprises of war, as well as the arduous cares of state.
Besides, their attention is so much engaged with the necessary
nurture of their children, that nature has made them fittest for
domestic cares. And children have not judgment or will of their
own. True. But will not these reasons apply to others ? Is it
not equally true, that men in general, in every society, who are
wholly destitute of property, are also too little acquainted with
public affairs to form a right judgment, and too dependent upon
other men to have a will of their own ? If this is a fact, if
you give to every man who has no property, a vote, will you
not make a fine encouraging provision for corruption, by your
fundamental law ? Such is the frailty of the human heart, that
very few men who have no property, have any judgment of
their own. They talk and vote as they are directed by some
man of property, who has attached their minds to his interest.
Upon my word, Sir, I have long thought an army a piece of
clock-work, and to be governed only by principles and maxims,
as fixed as any in mechanics ; and, by all that I have read in
the history of mankind, and in authors who have speculated
upon society and government, I am much inclined to think a
government must manage a society in the same manner ; and
that this is machinery too.
Harrington has shown that power always follows property.
This I believe to be as infallible a maxim in politics, as that
action and reaction are equal, is in mechanics. Nay, I believe
we may advance one step farther, and affirm that the balance
of power in a society, accompanies the balance of property in
land. The only possible way, then, of preserving the balance
of power on the side of equal liberty and public virtue, is to
CORRESPONDENCE. 377
make the acquisition of land easy to every member of society ;
to make a division of the land into small quantities, so that the
multitude may be possessed of landed estates. If the multi-
tude is possessed of the balance of real estate, the multitude
will have the balance of pawer, and in that case the multitude
Avill take care of the liberty, virtue, and interest of the multi-
tude, in all acts of government.
I believe these principles have been felt, if not understood, in
the Massachusetts Bay, from the beginning ; and therefore I
should think that wisdom and policy would dictate in these
times to be very cautious of making alterations. Our people
have never been very rigid in scrutinizing into the qualifications
of voters, and I presume they will not now begin to be so.
Sut I would not advise them to make any alteration in the laws,
at present, respecting the qualifications of voters.
Your idea that those laws which affect the lives and personal
liberty of all, or which inflict corporal punishment, affect those
who are not qualified to vote, as well as those who are, is just.
But so they do women, as well as men; children, as well as
adults. What reason should there be for excluding a man of
twenty years eleven months and twenty-seven days old, from a
vote, when you admit one who is twenty-one ? The reason is,
you must fix upon some period in life, when the understanding
and will of men in general, is fit to be trusted by the public.
Will not the same reason justify the state in fixing upon some
certain quantity of property, as a qualification ?
The same reasoning which will induce you to admit all men
who have no property, to vote, with those who have, for those
laws which affect the person, will prove that you ought to admit
women and children ; for, generally speaking, women and child-
ren have as good judgments, and as independent minds, as
those men who are wholly destitute of property ; these last
being to all intents and purposes as much dependent upon
others, who will please to feed, clothe, and employ them, as
women are upon their husbands, or children on their parents.
As to your idea of proportioning the votes of men, in money
matters, to the property they hold, it is utterly impracticable.
There is no possible way of ascertaining, at any one time, how
much every man in a community is worth ; and if there was,
so fluctuating is trade and property, that this state of it would
32*
378 CORRESPONDENCE.
change in half an hour. The property of the whole commu-
nity is shifting every hour, and no record can be kept of the
changes.
Society can be governed only by general rules. Government
cannot accommodate itself to every particular case as it hap-
pens, nor to the circumstances of particular persons. It must
establish general comprehensive regulations for cases and per-
sons. The only question is, which general rule will accommo-
date most cases and most persons.
Depend upon it, Sir, it is dangerous to open so fruitful a
source of controversy and altercation as would be opened by at-
tempting to alter the qualifications of vt)t^rs ; there will be no
end of it. New claims will arise ; women will demand a vote ;
lads from twelve to twenty-one will think their rights not
enough attended to ; and every man who has not a farthing,
will demand an equal voice with any other, in all acts of state.
It tends to confound and destroy all distinctions, and prostrate
all ranks to one common level.
TO BENJAMIN HIGHBORN.
Philadelphia, 29 May, 1776.
Your agreeable favor of 20th May, was handed me yester-
day, and it gave me much pleasure, on various accounts ; one
particularly, as it gave me evidence of your existence, which
for some time past you have suffered to remain problematical.
I have long expected letters from you, but yet I cannot find
fault, because I believe I am much in your debt. However, if
you had considered the situation I am in, surrounded with de-
mands for all, and more than all, my time, you would not have
waited for regular payments from me.
I am sorry to see you complain of suspicions. I hoped they
were forgotten. Indeed, I think that upon your return they
ought to have vanished.^ I have none, nor am I in the least
degree afraid of censure on your account, nor of losing a thread
of influence. Fortified in innocence, a man should set ground-
' This alludes to the letters intercepted in the hands of Mr. Hichborn. See
the Diary, vol. ii. p. 411.
CORRESPONDENCE. 379
less censures at defiance ; and as to influence, the more a man
has of it, at least of such as mine, if I have any, the more un-
fortunate he is. If by influence is understood the power of do-
ing good to the public, or of serving men of merit, this influ-
ence is devoutly to be wished by every benevolent mind. Bat
very little of this kind of influence has ever fallen to my share.
* ******
I am much pleased with your spirited project of driving away
the wretches from the harbor, and never shall be happy till I
hear it is done, and the very entrance fortified impregnably. I
cannot bear that an unfriendly flag or mast should be in sight
of Bacon Hill.
You are " checked by accounts from the southward, of a dis-
position in a great majority to counteract independence." Read
the proceedings of Georgia, South and North Carolina, and Vir-
ginia, and then judge. The middle colonies have never tasted
the bitter cup ; they have never smarted, and are therefore a lit-
tle cooler ; but you will see that the colonies are united indis-
solubly. Maryland has passed a few eccentric resolves, but
these are only flashes which will soon expire.^ The proprietary
governments are not only encumbered with a large body of
Quakers, but are embarrassed by a proprietary interest; both
together clog their operations a little, but these clogs are falling
off, as you will soon see.
I dread the spirit of innovation which I fear will appear in
our new and numerous representative body. It is much to be
desired that their attention may at present be more fixed upon
the defence of the province and military operations, than upon
opening sources of endless altercation. Unanimity, in this time
of calamity and danger, is of great importance. You ask my
sentiments of the political system to be adopted. My opinion,
I am very certain, will not be followed. We have able men in
"the colony, but I am much afraid they will not be heard. I
hope a Governor and Lieutenant-Governor will be chosen ; and
that- they will be respectable for their fortune, as well as abilities
and integi-ity, if such can be found. The Judges, I hope, will
be made independent both for the duration and emoluments of
1 These resolves were passed on the 16th of May, confirming the instructions
given in January preceding to the delegates, to oppose a declaration of inde-
pendence. Force's American Archives^ Fourth series, vol. vi. c. 463.
380 CORRESPONDENCE.
office. There is nothing of more importance than this, but yet
there is nothing less likely to be done.
How the representation will be settled, I cannot guess; but T
really hope they will not attempt any material alteration in the
qualification of voters. This will open a door for endless dis-
putes, and I am much afraid, for numberless corruptions.
I wish I could be at home at this important period. But you
will remember that all the other colonies have Constitutions to
frame, and what is of infinitely greater delicacy, intricacy, and
importance, the continent has a Constitution to form. If I could
be of some little use at home, I may be of more here at present.
You kindly and politely express a concern for my health, and,
if you have any regard for me, it is not without reason. I have
been here four months, during which time I have never once
been on horseback, and have found but little time to walk.
Such uninterrupted attention to cares and perplexities of various
kinds, is enough to destroy a more robust body than mine; but
I cannot excuse myself from these duties, and I must march
forward until it comes to my turn to fall. Indeed if a few
things more were fully accomplished, I should think it my duty
to ask leave of my constituents to return home to my garden.
The moment I can see every colony in possession and actual
exercise of all the powers of government, and a confederation
well settled for all the colonies, under a Congress with powers
clearly defined and limited, and sufficient preparation and pro-
vision made for defence against the force which is coming
against us, that moment I shall return to my family, from
which I have been too long divorced. But whether my consti-
tution will hold out so long, must be left to him that made it,
to whose wisdom and goodness I cheerfully submit.
N. B. The petition from the independent corps in Boston,
gave me great pleasure, and is much to their honor. I did my
endeavor to get the prayer granted, but it is at last left to
the General.
CORRESPONDENCE. 381
TO SAMUEL COOPER.
Philadelphia, 30 May, 1776.
Yours of the 20th, was handed me by the last post. I con-
gratulate you upon the first modern election, on the last Wed-
nesday in May, of counsellors as at the first. I could not avoid
indulging myself yesterday in imagination with my friends in
Boston, upon an occasion so joyful. I presume you must have
have had a very solemn and ceremonious election, and wish
that no interruption may ever hereafter take place, like that of
the last year.
You have given me great pleasure by your account of the
spirit and activity of our people, their skill and success in forti-
fying the town and harbor. But there are several things still
wanting, in my judgment. I never shall be happy until every
unfriendly flag is driven out of sight, and the Light House Is-
land, George's and Lovell's Islands, and the east end of Long
Island, are secured. Fire-ships and rafts will be of no service,
without something to cover and protect them from the boats of
the men-of-war. Galleys are the best engines in the world for
this purpose. Colonel Quincy has the best idea of these gal-
leys, of any man I know. I believe he has a perfect idea of
the Turkish and Venetian galleys ; some of these are as large
as British men-of-war, but some are small. Galleys might be
built and armed with heavy cannon, thirty-six or forty-two pound-
ers, which would drive away a ship of almost any size, number
of guns, or weight of metal. The dexterity of our people in
sea matters, must produce great things, if it had any person to
guide it, and stimulate it. A kind of dodging Indian fight might
be maintained among the islands in our harbor, between such
galleys and the men-of-war.
Whether you have any person sufficiently acquainted with
the composition of those combustibles which are usually put
into fire-ships and rafts, I don't know. If you have not, it would
be worth while to send some one here to inquire and learn. At
least, let me know it; and although I have a demand upon me
for an hour where I have a minute to spare, yet will I be at the
pains, though I neglect other things, of informing myself as
well as I can here, and send you what I learn.
382 CORRESPONDENCE.
We are making the best provision we can for the defence of
America. I believe we shall make provision for 70,000 men in
thej;hree departments, the northern, including Canada, the mid-
dle, and the southern. The die is cast. We must all be sol-
diers, and fight pro avis etfocis. I hope there is not a gentle-
man in the Massachusetts Bay, not even in the town of Boston,
who thinks himself too good to take his firelock and his spade.
Such imminent dangers level all distinctions. You must, before
now, have seen some important resolutions of this Congress, as
well as of separate colonies. Before many weeks, you will see
more.
Remember me, with every sentiment of friendship and re-
spect, to all who deserve well of their country. These are all
my friends, and I have and will have no other.
P. S. Galleys to be used merely in Boston harbor, the less
they are, the better, provided they are large and strong enough
to sustain the weight of the gun, and the shock of the explo-
sion. The galleys first built in Delaware River were too large
to be handy, and too small to live and work in a sea. We are
building two of a different construction. They are to carry two
large guns in the stern, and two in front, and five or six three
pounders on each side, besides swivels. They are built to put
to sea, live and fight in a swell or a storm. They are narrow,
but almost one hundred feet long.
TO ISAAC SMITH.
Philadelphia, 1 June, 1776.
Your favors of May 14th and 22d are now before me. The
first I showed to Mr. Morris, as soon as I received it. The last
contains intelligence from Halifax of the straits to which our
enemies are reduced, which I was very glad to learn.
I am very happy to learn from you and some others of my
friends, that Boston is securely fortified ; but still I cannot be
fully satisfied until I hear that every unfriendly flag is chased
out of that harbor.
Cape Ann, I am sensible, is a most important post ; and if
CORRESPONDENCE. 383
the enemy should possess themselves of it, they might distress
the trade of the colony to a great degree. For which reason, I
am determined to do every thing in my power to get it fortified
at the continental expense. I can not be confident that I shall
succeed, but it shall not be my fault if I do not. I am very
glad you gave me your opinion of the utility of that harbor,
and of the practicability of making it secure, because I was
not enough acquainted with it before, to speak with precision
about it.
Your observations upon the oppressive severity of the old
regulations of ti'ade, in subjecting ships and cargoes to confis-
cation for the indiscretion of a master or mariner, and upon
the artifice and corruption which was introduced respecting hos-
pital money, are very just. But if you consider the resolution
of Congress, and that of Virginia of the 15th of May, the reso-
lutions of the two Carolinas and Georgia, each of which colo-
nies are instituting new governments under the authority of the
people ; if you consider what is doing at New York, New Jer-
sey, Pennsylvania, and even in Maryland, which are all gradu-
ally forming themselves into order to follow the colonies to the
northward and southward, together with the treaties with Hesse,
Brunswick, and Waldeck, and the answer to the mayor, &c., of
London, I believe you will be convinced that there is little
probability of our ever again coming under the yoke of British
regulations of trade. The cords w^hich connected the two coun-
tries are cut asunder, and it will not be easy to splice them
again together.
I agree with you in sentiment that there will be little diifi-
culty in trading with France and Spain, a great deal in dealing
with Portugal, and some with Holland. Yet, by very good in-
telligence, I am convinced that there are great merchants in the
United Provinces, and even in Amsterdam, who will contract to
supply you with any thing you want, whether merchandise or
military stores, by the way of Nieuport and Ostend, two towns
which are subject to the Empress of Austria, who has never
taken any public notice of the dispute between Britain and us,
and has never prohibited her subjects from supplying us with
any thing.
There is a gentleman now in this city, a native of it, and a
very worthy man, who has been lately in these towns, as well
384 CORRESPONDENCE.
as Amsterdam, who informs ine that he had many conversa-
tions there with merchants of figure, and that they assured him
they should be glad to contract to furnish us with any supplies,
even upon credit, for an interest of four per cent. Other intel-
ligence to the same purpose, with additions of more import-
ance, has been sent here. But the particulars may not be men-
tioned.
Europe seems to be in a great commotion. Although the ap-
pearance of a perfect calm is affected, I think this American
contest will light up a general war. What it will end in, God
alone knows, to whose wise and righteous providence I cheer-
fullv submit.
TO HENRY KNOX.
Philadelpliia, 2 June, 1776.
Your esteemed favor of the 16th of May, came to my hand a
few days ago.
You have laid me under obligations, by your ingenious ob-
servations upon thos^ books upon military science, which are
necessary to be procured in the present circumstances of this
country. I have been a long time convinced of the utility of
publishing American editions of those writers, and that it is an
object of sufficient importance to induce the public to be at the
expense of it. But greater objects press in such numbers upon
those who think for the public, as St. Drummond^ expresses it,
that this has been hitherto neglected. I could wish that the
public would be at the expense, not only of new editions of
these authors, but of establishing academies for the education
of young gentlemen in every branch of the military art ; be-
cause I am fully of your sentiment, that we ought to lay foun-
dations, and begin institutions, in the present circumstances of
this country, for promoting every art, manufacture, and science,
which is necessary for the support of an independent State.
We must, for the future, stand upon our own legs, or fall. The
' Vol. iii. p. 31 - 32, and the reference in the note.
COKRESPONDENCE. 385
alienation of affection between the two countries, is at Icnsth
so great, that if the morals of the British nation, and their poli-
tical principles, were much purer than they are, it would be
scarcely possible to accomplish a cordial reunion with them.
The votes of the Congress, and the proceedings of the colo-
nies, separately, must, before this time, have convinced you that
this is the sense of America, with infinitely greater unanimity
than could have been credited by many people, a few months
ago. Those few persons, indeed, who have attended closely to
the proceedings of the several colonies for a number of years
past, and reflected deeply upon the causes of this mighty con-
test, have foreseen that such an unanimity would take place as
soon as a separation should become necessary. These are not
at all surprised, while many others really are, and some affect
to be, astonished at the phenomenon.
The policy of Rome in carrying their arms to Carthage, while
Hannibal was at the gates of their capital, was wise, and justi-
fied by the event, and would deserve imitation, if we could
march into the country of our enemies. But, possessed as they
are of the dominion of the sea, it is not easy for us to reach
them. Yet, it is possible that a bold attempt might succeed ;
but we have not yet sufficient confidence in our own power or
skill, to encourage enterprises of the daring, hardy kind. Such
often prosper, and are always glorious. But shall I give offence
if I say, that our arms have kept an even pace with our coun-
sels ; that both have been rather slow and irresolute ? Have
either our officers or men, by sea or land, as yet discovered that
exalted courage and mature judgment, both of which are neces-
sary for great and splendid actions ? Our forces have done
very well, considering their poor appointments, and our infancy.
But I may say to you, that I wish I could see less attention to
trifles, and more to the great essentials of the service, both in
the civil and military departments. I am no prophet, if we are
not compelled by necessity, before the war is over, to become
more men of business, and less men of pleasure. I have
formed great expectations from a number of gentlemen of ge-
nius, sentiment, and education, of the younger sort, whom I
know to be in the army, and wish that additions might be made
to the number. We have had some examples of magnanimity
and bravery, it is true, which would have done honor to any
VOL. IX. 33 Y
386 CORRESPONDENCE.
age or country ; but these have been accompanied with a want
of skill and experience which entitles the hero to compassion,
at the same time that he has our admiration. For ray own
part, I never thinlc of Warren or Montgomery, without lament-
ing, at the same time that I admire, that inexperience to which
perhaps they both owed their glory.
TO PATRICK HENRY.
Philadelpliia, 3 June, 1776.
My Dear Sir, — I had this morning the pleasure of yours
of 20 May.i The little pamphlet you mention is nuUivs filius ;
and, if I should be obliged to maintain it, the world will not
expect that I should own it. My motive for inclosing it to you,
was not the value of the present, but as a token of friendship,
and more for the sake of inviting your attention to the subject,
than because there was any thing in it worthy your perusal.
The subject is of infinite moment, and perhaps more than ade-
quate to the abilities of any man in America. I know of none
so competent to the task as theauthor of the first Virginia reso-
Jutions against the stamp act, who will have the glory with pos-
terity, of beginning and concluding this great revolutiwi^
Happy Virginia, whose Constitution is to be framed by so mas-
terly a builder! Whether the plan of the pamphlet is not too
popular, whether the elections are not too frequent for your
colony, I know not. The usages, and genius, and manners of
the people must be consulted. And if annual elections of the
representatives of the people are sacredly preserved, those elec-
tions by ballot, and none permitted to be chosen but inhabit-
ants, residents as well as qualified freeholders of the city, county,
parish, town, or borough, for which they are to serve, three es-
sential prerequisites of a free government, the council, or mid-
dle branch of the legislature may be triennial, or even septennial,
without much inconvenience.
I esteem it an honor and a happiness, that my opinion so
often coincides with yours. It has ever appeared to me that
1 This letter is printed in a note appended to the " Thoughts on Govern-
niont," horn alhided to. Vol. iv. p. 201.
CORRESPONDENCE. 387
the natural course and order of things was this ; for every colony
to institute a government ; for all the colonies to confederate,
and define the limits of the continental Constitution ; then to
declare the colonies a sovereign state, or a number of confede-
rated sovereign states ; and last of all, to form treaties with
foreign powers. But I fear we cannot proceed systematically,
and that we shall be obliged to declare ourselves independent
States, before we confederate, and indeed before all the colonies
have established their governments.
I* is now pretty clear that all these measures will follow one
another in a rapid succession, and it may not perhaps be of
much importance which is done first.
The importance of an immediate application to the French
court, is clear ; and I am very much obliged to you for your hint
of the route by the Mississippi.
Your intimation that the session of your representative body
would be long, gave me great pleasure, because we all look up
to Virginia for examples ; and, in the present perplexities, dan-
gers, and distresses of our countiy, it is necessary that the su-
preme councils of the colonies should be almost constantly sit-
ting. Some colonies are not sensible of this ; and they will
certainly suffer for their indiscretion. Events of such magni-
tude as those which present themselves now in such quick suc-
cession, require constant attention and mature deliberation.
The little pamphlet you mention, which was published here
as_an antidote to the " Thoughts on Government," and which
is whispered to have been the joint production of one native of
Virginia, and two natives of New York, I know not how truly,
will make no fortune in the world.^ It is too absurd to be con-
sidered twice ; it is contrived to involve a colony in eternal
war.
The dons, the bashaws, the grandees, the patricians, the sa-
chems, the nabobs, call them by what name you please, sigh,
and groan, and fret, and sometimes stamp, and foam, and curse,
but all in vain. The decree is gone forth, and it cannot be re-
called, that a more equal liberty than has prevailed in other
parts of the earth, must be established in America. That exu-
' "An Address to the Convention of the Colony and ancient dominion of
Virginia, on the subject of government in general," &c. See vol. iv. p. 202,
note.
;j88 correspondencj:.
berance of pride which has produced an insolent domination in
a few, a very few, opulent, monopolizing families, will be
brought down nearer to the confines of reason and moderation,
than they have been used to. This is all the evil which they
themselves will endure. It will do them good in this world,
and in every other. For pride was not made for man, only as
a tormentor.
I shall ever be happy in receiving your advice by letter, luitil
1 can be more completely so in seeing you here in person, which
I hope will be soon.
TO HUGH HUGHES.
Philadelphia, 4 June, 1776.
Yours of May 29, came safe to hand, and I am much pleased
to find that your citizens have behaved with so much wisdom,
unanimity, and spirit. Yet I was disappointed that you did
not inclose their votes.^
I am very glad that Mr. J. is with you, and hope he will be
of great service there ; but will he not be for making your go-
vernor and counsellors for life, or during good behavior ? I
should dread such a Constitution in these perilous times, be-
cause however wise, and brave, and virtuous these rulers may
be at their first appointment, their tempers and designs will
be very apt to change, and then they may have it in their power
to betray the people, who will have no means of redress. The
people ought to have frequently the opportunity, especially in
these dangerous times, of considering the conduct of their lead-
ers, and of approving or disapproving. You will have no safety
without it.
The province of Pennsylvania is in a good way, and will
soon become an important branch of the Confederation. The
large body of the people will be possessed of more power and
1 Mr. Hughes announced in his letter, that the citizens of New York " had a
meeting on Monday evening last, when it was agreed, Avithout a dissenting
voice, to instruct our Convention on that most important of all sublunary affairs,
in order that application may be made to your honorable House."
This probably refers to the vote of the General Committee of Mechanics in
Union, of the city and county of New York, whose address is printed in Force's
American Archives, 4th scries, vol. vi. c. 614.
CORRESPONDENCE. 389
importance, and a proud junto of less ; and yet justice will, I
hope, be done to all.
I wish you happiness, promotion, and reputation in the ser-
vice.i
TO RICHARD HENRY LEE.
Philadelphia, 4 June, 177G.
Sir, — Your favor of 18 May, inclosing the momentous reso-
lution of your wise and patriotic convention, together with the
American Crisis, came duly to hand, and yesterday I had the
pleasure of receiving the proceedings of the House of Burgesses.
I thank you, Sir, for both these esteemed favors.
Is it not a little remarkable, that this Congress and your Con-
vention should come to resolutions so nearly similar, on the same
day ? and that even the Convention of Maryland should, in that
critical moment, have proceeded so far as to abolish the oaths
of allegiance, notwithstanding that some of their other resolves
are a little eccentric ?
Your resolution is consistent and decisive ; it is grounded on
true principles, which are fairly and clearly stated ; and in my
humble opinion, the proviso, which reserves to yourselves the in-
stitution of your own government, is fit and right, this being a
matter of wiiich the colonies are the best judges, and a privilege
which each colony ought to reserve to itself. Yet, after all, I
believe there will be much more uniformity in the governments
which all of them will adopt, than could have been expected a
few months ago.
The joy and exultation which was expressed upon that great
occasion, did honor to their good sense and public virtue. It
was an important event, at a critical time, in which the interest
and happiness of themselves and their posterity were much con-
cerned.
Hopkiiis's fleet has been very unfortunate ; a dreadful sick-
ness has raged among his men, and disabled him from putting
more than two of his vessels to sea. To what place they are
gone, I know not ; perhaps to cruise for transports.
1 Mr. Hughes had been appointed by General Schuyler Assistant Quarter-
master-General of his forces.
33*
390 CORRESPONDENCE.
TO WILLIAM GUSHING.
Philadelphia, 9 June, 1776.
I had yesterday the honor of your letter of the 28th May, and
I read it with all that pleasure which we feel on the revival of
an old friendship, when we meet a friend whom for a long
time we have not seen.
You do me great honor, Sir, in expressing a pleasure at mj_
_appointment to the bench ; but be assured that no circumstance
relating to that appointment, has given me so much concern as
my being placed at the head of it, in preference to another,
who in my opinion was so much better qualified for it, and en-
titled to it. I did all in my power to have it otherwise, but I
was told that our sovereign lords the people must have it so.
When, or where, or how, the secret imagination seized you, as
you say it did heretofore, that I was destined to that place, I
cannot conjecture. Nothing, I am sure, was further from my
thoughts or wishes. I am not a little chagrined that Sargeant
has declined. I had great hopes from his solid judgment and
extensive knowledge. Paine has acted in his own character,
although I think not consistent with the public character which
he has been made to wear. However, I confess I am not much
mortified with this, for the bench will not be the less respecta-
ble for having the less wit, humor, drollery, or fun upon it ; very
difl'erent qualities are necessary for that department.^
Warren has an excellent head and heart ; and since we can-
not be favored and honored with the judgment of lawyers, I
know not where a better man could have been found ; I hope
he will not decline ; if he should, I hope that Lowell or Dana
will be thought of.
I am happy in your appointment of good Mr. Winthrop,^
whose experience will be useful in that station, and whose con-
duct and principles have deserved it.
You have my hearty concurrence in telling the jury the nul-
lity of acts of parliament, whether we can prove it by the jus
1 Notwithstanding all which, Mr. Paine subsequently accepted a seat on the
bench, and served with dignity and reputation for fourteen years, until 1804.
2 " We have appointed good Mr. Winthrop, clerk." Extract from Mr. C.'s
letter.
CORRESPONDENCE. 391
gladii, or not.^ I am determined to die of that opinion, let the
jus g-ladii say what it will.
The system and rules of the common law must be adopted,
I suppose, until the legislature shall make alterations in either ;
and how much soever I may heretofore have found fault with
the powers that were, I suppose I shall be well pleased now to
hear submission inculcated to the powers that are. It wotlld
give me great pleasure to ride this eastern circuit with you, and
prate before you at the bar, as I used to do. But I am destined
to another fate, to drudgery of the most wasting, exhausting,_
consuming kind, that I ever went through in my whole life.
Objects of the most stupendous magnitude, and measures in
which the lives and liberties of millions yet unborn are inti-
mately interested, are now before us. We are in the very
midst of a revolution, the most complete, unexpected, and re-
markable, of any in the history of nations, A few important
subjects must be despatched before I can return to my family.
Every colony must be induced to institute a perfect govern-
ment. All the colonies must confederate together in some so-
lemn band of union. The Congress must declare the colonies
free and independent States, and ambassadors must be sent
abroad to foreign courts, to solicit their acknowledgment of us,
as sovereign States, and to form with them, at least with some
of them, commercial treaties of friendship and alliance. When
these things are once completed, I shall think that I have an-
swered the end of my creation, and sing my nunc diinittis, re-
turn to my farm, family, ride circuits, plead law, or judge
causes, just which you please.
The rumors you heard of a reinforcement in Canada, and
those you must have heard before now, of many disasters there,
are but too true. Canada has been neglected too much, to
my infinite grief and regret, and against all the remonstrances
which I could make, and many others. This has been owing
to causes, which it would tire you to explain, if I was at liberty,
which I am not. However, nothing on my part, or that of my
colleagues, will be wanting to secure a reverse of fortune there.
Dunmore is fled to an island. Our little fleet has had a shock-
' " I can tell the grand jury the nullity of acts of parliament, but must leave
you to prove it by the more powerful arguments of the Jus gladii divinum, a
power not peculiar to kings or ministers." Mr. C.'s letter.
392 CORRESPONDENCE.
ing sickness, which has disabled so many men, that the com-
modore has sent on a cruise two of his ships only.
The difficulty of defending so extended a sea-coast, is prodi-
gious, but the spirit of the people is very willing, and they exert
themselves nobly in most places. The British men-of-war are
distressed for provisions, and even for water, almost every-
where. They have no comfort in any part of America.
My good genius whispers me very often, that I shall enjoy
many agreeable hours with you ; but fortune often disappoints
the hopes which my good genius inspires. But in the mean
time, I shall ever be happy to receive a line from you. Should
be much obliged to you for some account of occurrences in your
eastern circuit. Remember me with every sentiment of respect
to the bench, the bar, and all other friends.
TO JOHN LOWELL.
Philadelphia, 12 June, 1776.
Yesterday's post brought me a newspaper of the 3d instant,
containing a list of your House and Board ; and, upon my word,
I read it with more pleasure than I ever read any other list
of the tw^o Houses. I do not believe the records of the pro-
vince can show a more respectable set of representatives or
counsellors. Sargeant, Lowell, Pickering, Angier, are great
acquisitions in the House ; so are Dana and Sewall at the Board,
not to mention many other very respectable characters among
the new members of each.
From this collection of wise and prudent men I hope great
things. I hope that the most vigorous exertions will be made
to put the province in the best state of defence. Every seaport
in it ought to be fortified in such a manner that you may set
the enemy at defiance. To this end, large additions must be
made to the cannon of the colon v. I wish to know whether
they are cast at any furnace in the province ; if not, no expense,
I think, should be spared to procure them. They are casting
them successfully in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island.
Another article, essentially necessary, is that of muskets. I
CORRESPONDENCE. 393
wish that every man in tlie province, who can work about any
part of a gun or bayonet, was set to work. No price should be
thought extravagant.
^altpetre,Jt seems, you are in a way to procure in sufficient
quantities ; but sulphur and lead I have not yet learnt to be
made among you. I hope you will take effectual measures to
make salt. You must do it. The other colonies are too lazy
and shiftless to do any thing until you set them the example.
The defence of the colony is the first object. The second is
the formation of a Constitution. In this business I presume
you will proceed slowly and deliberately. It is a difficult
work to achieve; and the spirit of levelling, as well as that of
innovation, is afloat. Before I saw the list of the new election,
I was under fearful apprehension, I confess. But my mind is
now at ease in this respect. There are so many able men in
each House, that I think they will have influence enough to
prevent any dangerous innovations, and yet to carry any neces-
sary and useful improvements.
Some of you must prepare your stomachs to come to Phila-
delphia. I am weary, and must ask leave to return to my
family, after a little time, and one of my colleagues at least
must do the same, or I greatly fear do worse. You and I know
very well the fatigues of practice at the bar, but I assure you
this incessant round of thinking and speaking upon the greatest
subjects that ever employed the mind of man, and the most per-
plexing dilliculties that ever puzzled it, is beyond all comparison
more exhausting and consuming.
Our affairs in Canada are in a confused and disastrous situa-
tion. But I hope they will not be worse. We have made
large requisitions upon you ; how you can possibly comply
with them I know not ; but I hope you will do as much as you
can.
We have no resource left, my friend, bat our own fortitude
and the favor of heaven. If we have the first I have no doubt
we shall obtain the last, and these will be sufficient. All ideas
of reconciliation or accommodation seem to be gone with the
years before the flood.
I have nothing new to communicate but what is in every
newspaper, and I began this letter only to make my compli-
ments to you, and ask the favor of your correspondence. But
394 CORRESPONDENCE.
I have wandered, I know not whither. It is time to subscribe
myself your friend and servant.
TO OAKES ANGIER.
Philadelphia, 12 June, 177G.
It was with great pleasure, and perhaps some little mixture
of pride, that I read your name among the representatives of
Bridgewater, in the Boston Gazette. I rejoiced to find that
your townsmen had so much confidence in your abilities and
patriotism, and that you had so much confidence in the justice
of our cause, and the abilities of America to support it, as to
embark your fortune in it. Your country never stood so nrach
in need of men of clear heads and steady hearts to conduct
her affairs. Our civil governments as well as military prepara-
tions want much improvement, and to this end a most vigilant
attention, as well as great patience, caution, prudence, and
firmness, is necessary.
You will excuse the freedom of a friend, when I tell you that
I have never entertained any doubt that your political prin-
ciples and public affections corresponded with those of your
country. But you know that jealousies and suspicions have
been entertained and propagated concerning you. These jea-
lousies arose, I am well persuaded, from an unreserved freedom
of conversation, and a social disposition a little addicted to dis-
putation, which was sometimes, perhaps, incautiously indulged.
Your present situation, which is conspicuous, and not only
exposed to observation but to misconstruction and misrepre-
sentation, will make it necessary for you to be upon your guard.
Let me recommend to you an observation that one of my
colleagues is very fond of, " The first virtue of a politician is
patience; the second is patience; and the third is patience!"
as Demosthenes observed that action was the first, second, and
third quality of an orator. You will experience in public life
such violent, sudden, and unexpected provocations and disap-
pointments, that if you are not now possessed of all the patience
of Job, I would advise you to acquire it as soon as possible.
CORRESPONDENCE. 395
News I can tell you none. I have written to Colonel Warren,
JMr. Sewall, and Mr. Lowell, a few broken hints, upon subjects
which I wish you would turn your thoughts to. Be so good
as to wTite me any remarkables in the legislature or the courts
of justice.
TO FRANCIS DANA.
Philadelphia, 12 June, 1776.
In the lists of the House and Board I was as much pleased
to find your name among the latter, as I was chagrined to
find it omitted in the former. This is one among numberless
advantages of a middle branch of the legislature, that a place
may be found in it for such distinguished friends of their
country as are omitted by the people in the choice of their re-
presentatives. This is an advantage which Pennsylvania never
enjoyed and some ignorant pretenders to the art of building
civil governments seem to wish should not prevail in other
colonies. But, so far from succeeding, every colony on the
continent in their new Constitutions, even Pennsylvania itself,
will have a middle branch. I hope you will now go on and
complete your government by choosing a governor and lieute-
nant-governor.
I think the province never had so fair a representation or so
respectable a House or Board. You have a great number of
ingenious, able men in each. I sincerely congratulate the pro-
vince upon it, and think it forebodes much good. I am anxious
to be informed of the state of the province, and of the progress
you make step by step. Should be much obliged to you for a
letter now and then.
We are drudging on as usual; sometimes it is seven o'clock
before we rise. We have greater things in contemplation than
ever; the greatest of all which we ever shall have. Be silent
and patient, and time will bring forth, after the usual groans,
throes, and pains upon such occasions, a fine child, a fine, vigor-
ous, healthy boy, I presume. God bless him and make him a
great, wise, virtuous, pious, rich, and powerful man!
Prepare yourself for vexation enough, for my tour of duty is
396 CORRESPONDENCE.
almost out; and when it is, you or Lowell, or both, must come
here and toil a little, while we take a little breath.
TO SAMUEL CHASE.
Philadelphia, 14 June, 1776.
Mr. Bedford put into my hand this moment a card from you,
containing a reprehension for the past, and a requisition for the
time to come.i For the past, I kiss the rod; but from comply-
ing with the requisition, at least one part of it, I must be ex-,
cused. I have no objection to writing you facts, but I would
not meddle with characters for the world. A burnt child dreads
the fire. I have smarted too severely for a few crude expressions
written in a pet to a bosom friend, to venture on such bold-
nesses again. Besides, if I were to tell you all that I think of
all characters, I should appear so ill natured and censorious that
I should detest myself. By my soul, I think very heinously, I
cannot think of a better word, of some people. They think as
badly of me, I suppose; and neither of us care a farthing for
that. So the account is balanced, and perhaps, after all, both
sides may be deceived, both may be very honest men.
But of all the animals on earth that ever fell in my way, your
trimmers, your double-tongued and double-minded men, your
disguised folk, I detest most. The devil, I think, has a better
title to these, by half, than he has to those who err openly, and
are barefaced villains.
Mr. Adams ever was and ever will be glad to see Mr. Chase ;
but Mr. Chase never was nor will be more welcome than if he
should come next Monday or Tuesday fortnight, with the voice
of Maryland in favor of independence and a foreign alliance.
1 As this note is brief, it is given entire :
"_Mr. Chase will excuse the late neglect and inattention of Mr. John Adams
to him, upon the express condition that in future he constantly communicate to
Mr. Chase every matter relating to persons or things. Mr. Chase Hatters him-
self with seeing Mr. Adams on Monday or Tuesday fortnight with the voice of
Maryland in favor of independence and a foreign alliance, which are, in Mr.
Chase's opinion, the only and best measures to preserve the liberties of America.
Direct to AnnapoUs."
CORRESPONDENCE. 397
I have never had the honor of knowing many people from Mary-
land, but by what I have learnt of them and seen of then- dele-
gates, they are an open, sincere, and united people. A little
obstinate, to be sure, but that is very pardonable, when accom-
panied with frankness. From all which I conclude that when
they shall be convinced of the necessity of those measures, they
will all be convinced at once, and afterwards be as active and
forward as any, perhaps more so than most.
I have one bone to pick with your colony ; I suspect they
levelled one of their instructions at my head. This is a distinc-
tion of which you may suppose I am not very ambitious. One
of your colleagues moved a resolution that no member of Con-
gress should hold any oflice under any of the new governments,
and produced an instruction to make him feel strong.^ I
seconded the motion, with a trifling amendment, that the reso-
lution should be, that no member of Congress should hold any
office, civil or military, in the army or in the militia, under any
government, old or new. This struck through the assembly
like an electric shock, for every member was a governor, or
general, or judge, or some mighty thing or other in the militia, or
under the old government or some new one. This was so im-
portant a matter that it required consideration, and I have never
heard another word about it.
The truth, as far as it respects myself, is this. The govern-
ment of the Massachusetts, without my solicitation and much
against my inclination, were pleased some time last summer to
nominate me to an office. It was at a time when offices under
new governments were not in much demand, being considered
rather precarious. I did not refuse this office, although, by
accepting it, I must resign another office, which I held under
the old government, three times as profitable, because I was
well informed, that, if I had refused it, no other man would have
accepted it, and this would have greatly weakened, perhaps
ruined the new constitution. This is the truth of fact. So
that one of the most disinterested and intrepid actions of my
whole life has been represented to the people of Maryland to
my disadvantage. I told the gentlemen that I should be much
obliged, if they would find me a man who would accept of my
1 See vol. iil. page 26, for the instruction, and further comments upon it. The
paper is printed in full in Force's American Archioes, 4th series, vol. iv. c. 739.
VOL. IX. 34
398 CORRESPONDENCE.
office, or by passing the resolution furnish me with a justifica-
tion for refusing it. In either case, I would subscribe my renun-
ciation of that office before I left that room. Nay, I would go
further, I would vote with them that every member of this
Congi-ess should take an oath that he never would accept of
any office during life, or procure any office for his father, his
son, his brother, or his cousin. So much for egotism I
McKean has returned from the lower counties with full
powers. Their instructions are in the same words with the
new ones to the delegates of Pennsylvania. New Jersey has
dethroned Franklin,^ and in a letter, which is just come to my
hand from indisputable authority, I am told that the delegates
from that colony "will vote plump I"^ Maryland now stands
alone. I presume she will soon join company; if not, she must
be left alone.
TO JAMES WARREN.
Philadelplila, 16 June, 1776,
Your favors of June 2d and 5th, are now before me.
The address to the Convention of Virginia, makes a small
fortune in the world. Colonel Henry, in a letter to me, expresses
infinite contempt of it,^ and assures me that the constitution of
Virginia will be more like the " Thoughts on Government." I
believe, however, they will make the election of their council
iseptennial; that of representatives and governor, annual. But
;I am amazed to find an inclination so prevalent throughout all
the southern colonies, to adopt plans so nearly resembling that
jin the " Thoughts on Government." I assure you, until the ex-
periment was made, I had no conception of it. But the pride
of the haughty must, I see, come down a little in the south.
You suppose " it would not do to have the two regiments you
are now raising, converted into continental regiments." But
why? "Would the officers or men have any objection? If they
would not. Congress would have none ; this was what I ex-
1 W. T. Franklin.
2 See the letter of J. D. Sergeant in volume iii. p. 55, note. As it is dated
at Burlington the 15th, the probability is that this letter was not finished until
the 16th.
3 Vol. iv. p. 201.
CORRESPONDENCE. 399
pected and intended, when the measure was in agitation. In-
deed, I thought, that as our battalions, with their arras, were
can-ied to New York and Canada, in the service of the united
colonics, the town of Boston and the province ought to be
guarded against danger by the united colonies.
You have been since called upon for six thousand militia for
Canada and New York. How you will get the men, I know
not. The smallpox, I suppose, will be a great discouragement.
But we must maintain our ground in Canada. The regulars,
if they get full possession of that province, and the navigation
of St. Lawrence river above Deschambault, at least above the
mouth of the Sorel, will have nothing to interrupt their commu-
nication with Niagara, Detroit, Michilimackinac; they will have
the navigation of the five great lakes quite as far as the Missis-
sippi River ; they will have a free communication with all the
numerous tribes of Indians extended along the frontiers of all
the colonies, and, by their trinkets and bribes, will induce them
to take up the hatchet, and spread blood and fire among the in-
habitants ; by which means, all the frontier inhabitants will be
driven in upon the middle settlements, at a time when the in-
habitants of the seaports and coasts will be driven back by the
British navy. Is this picture too high colored? Perhaps it is ;
but surely we must maintain our power in Canada.
You may depend upon my rendering Mr. Winthrop all the
service in my power.
I believe it will not be long before all property belonging to
British subjects, whether in Europe, the West India islands, or
elsewhere, will be made liable to capture. A few weeks may
possibly produce great things.
TO ZABDIEL ADAMS.^
Philadelphia, 21 June, 1776.
Your letter, Sir, gave me great pleasure, and deserves my
most hearty thanks.
I am fully with you in sentiment, that although the author-
ity of the Congress, founded as it has been in reason, honor,
1 Vol. ii. p. 83, note.
400 CORRESPONDENCE.
and the love of liberty, has been sufficient to govern the colonies
in a tolerable manner, for their defence and protection, yet that
it is not prudent to continue very long in the same way ; and
that a permanent constitution should be formed, and foreign
aid obtained. In these points, and thus far, the colonies and
their representatives, the Congress, are extremely well united.
But concerning a declaration of independency, there is some
diversity of sentiment. Two arguments only are urged with
any plausibility against such a measure. One is, that it will
unite all the inhabitants of Great Britain against us ; the other,
that it will put us too much in the power of foreign States.
The first has little weight in it, because the people of Great
Britain are already as much united against us as they ever are
in any thing, and the probability is, that such a declaration
would excite still greater divisions and distractions among them.
The second has less weight still ; for foreign powers already
know that we are as obnoxious to the British court as we can
be. They know that parliament have in effect declared us in-
dependent, and that we have acted these thirteen months to all
intent and purposes as if we were so.
The reports of fifty-five thousand men coming against us, are
chiefly ministerial gasconade. However, we have reason to fear
that they will send several very powerful armaments against us,
and therefore our most strenuous exertions will be necessary as
well as our most fervent prayers. America is yet in her in-
fancy, or at least but lately arrived to manhood, and is inex-
perienced in the perplexing mysteries of policy, as well as the
dangerous operations of war.
I assure you. Sir, that your employment in investigating the
moral causes of our miseries, and in pointing out the remedies,
is devoutly to be wished. There is no station more respectable,
nor any so pleasant and agreeable. Those who tread the pub-
lic stage in characters the most extensively conspicuous, meet
with so many embarrassments, perplexities, and disappoint-
ments, that they have often reason to wish for the peaceful
retreats of the clergy. Who would not wish to exchange the
angry contentions of the former for the peaceful contemplations
of the closet?
"Where Contemplation prunes her ruffled wings,
And the free soul looks down to pit}' kings."
CORRE8rOND£NCE. 401
Who would not exchange the discordant scenes of envy,
pride, vanity, malice, revenge, for the sweet consolations of
philosophy, the serene composure of the passions, the divine
enjoyments of Christian charity and benevolence?
Statesmen, my dear Sir, may plan and speculate for liberty,
but it is religion and morality alone, which can establish the
principles upon wiiich freedom can securely stand. The only
foundation of a free constitution is pure virtue ; and if this
cannot be inspired into our people in a greater measure than
they have it now, they may change their rulers and the forms
of government, but they will not obtain a lasting liberty.
They will only exchange tyrants and tyrannies. You cannot,
therefore, be more pleasantly or usefully employed than in the
way of your j^rofession, pulling down the strong-holds of Satan.
This is not cant, but the real sentiment of my heart. Remem-
ber me with much respect to your worthy family and to all
friends.
TO BENJAMIN KENT.
Pliiladelpliia, 22 June, 1776.
Your letters of April 24th ^ and May 26th are before me ; both
dated at Boston; a circumstance which alone would have given
pleasure to a man who has such an attachment to that town,
and who has suffered so much anxiety for his friends in their
exile from it.
We have not many of the fearful, and still less of the unbe-
lieving among us, how slowly soever you may think we pro-
ceed. Is it not a want of faith, or a predominance of fear, which
makes some of you so impatient for declarations in words, of
what is every day manifested in deeds of the most determined
nature and unequivocal signification ?
That we are divorced a vinculo, as well as from bed and
board, is to me very clear. The only question is concerning
the proper time for making an explicit declaration in words.
Some people must have time to look around them; before,
' Printed in vol. ii. p. 291, note.
34* Z
402 CORRESPONDENCE.
behind, on the right hand, and on the left; then to think, and,
after all this, to resolve. Others see at one intuitive glance
into the past and the future, and judge with precision at once.
But remember you cannot make thirteen clocks strike precisely
alike at the same second.
I am for the most liberal toleration of all denominations of
religionists, but I hope that Congress will never meddle with
religion further than to say their own prayers, and to fast and
give thanks once a year. Let every colony have its own reli-
gion without molestation.
The Congress ordered Church ^ to the Massachusetts Coun-
cil to be let out upon bail. It was represented to them that his
health was in a dangerous way, and it was thought he would
not now have it in his power to do any mischief. Nobody
knows what to do with him. There is no law to try him upon,
and no court to try him. I am afraid he deserves more punish-
ment than he will ever meet.
TO NATHANAEL GREENE.
Philadelphia, 22 June, 1776.
Your favor of the 2d instant has lain by me, I suppose, these
eighteen days ; but I fear I shall often have occasion to make
apologies for such omissions, which will never happen from
want of respect, but I fear very often for want of time.
Your reasoning to prove the equity and the policy of making
provision for the unfortunate officer or soldier, is extremely
just, and cannot be answered ; and I hope that when we get a
little over the confusions arising from the revolutions which are
now taking place in the colonies, and get an American Consti-
tution formed, something will be done. I should be much
obliged to you for your thoughts upon the subject. What
pensions should be allowed, or what other provision made.
Whether it would be expedient to establish a hospital, &c. It
is a matter of importance, and the plan should be well digested.
I think with you, that every colony should furnish its propor-
1 Dr. Church.
CORRESPONDENCE. 403
tion of men, and I hope it will come to this. But at present
some colonies have such bodies of Quakers, and Mennonists,
and Moravians, who are principled against war, and others have
such bodies of tories, or cowards, or unprincipled people, who
will not wage war, that it is, as yet, impossible.
The dispute is, as you justly observe, in all human probabi-
lity but in its infancy. We ought, therefore, to study to bring
every thing in the military department into the best order.
Fighting is not the greatest branch of the science of war. Men
must be furnished with good and wholesome provisions in
sufficient plenty. They must be well paid. They must be
well clothed, and well covered with barracks and tents. They
must be kept warm, with suitable fuel. In these respects we
have not been able to do so well as we wished. But why the
regiments have not been furnished with proper agents, I do not
know. Congress is ever ready to hearken to the advice of the
general, and if he had recommended such officers, they would
have been appointed. Colonels should neither be agents nor
sutlers. Congress have lately voted that there shall be regi-
mental paymasters, who shall keep the accounts of the regi-
ments. If any other agent is necessary, let me know it. Good
officers are no doubt the soul of an army, but our difficulty is
to get men. Officers present themselves in supernumerary
abundance.
As to pay, there is no end to the desire and demand of it.
Is there not too much extravagance and too little economy
among the officers ?
I am much at a loss whether it would not be the best policy
to leave every colony to raise its own troops, to clothe them,
to pay them, to furnish them with tents, and indeed with every
thing but provisions, fuel, and forage. The project of abolish-
ing provincial distinctions was introduced with a good inten-
tion, I believe, at first, but I think it will do no good upon the
whole. However, if Congress is to manage the whole, I am in
hopes they will get into a better train. They have establish-
ed a war-office, and a board of war and ordnance, by means
of which I hope they will get their affairs into better order.^
' Mr. Adams had been appointed by Congress, on the 13th of June, Chairman
of this Board. From this date his correspondence with the military officers
commences.
404 CORRESPONDENCE.
They will be better informed of the state of the army and of
all its wants.
That the promotion of extraordinary merit may give disgust
to those officers over whom the advancement is made, is true;
but I think it ought not. That this pov^er may be abused or
misapplied, is also true. That interest, favor, private friend-
ship, prejudice, may operate more or less in the purest assembly
is true. But where will you lodge this power ? To place it in
the General would be more dangerous to the public liberty, and
not less liable to abuse from sinister and unworthy motives.
Will it do, is it consistent with common prudence, to lay it
down as an invariable rule, that all officers, in all cases, shall
rise in succession?
I am obliged to you for your caution, not to be too confident.
The fate of war is uncertain ; so are all sublunary things. But
we must form our conjectures of effects from the knowledge we
have of causes, and in circumstances like ours must not attempt
to penetrate too far into futurity. There are as many evils,
and more, which arise in human life from an excess of diffi-
dence, as from an excess of confidence. Proud as mankind is,
there is more superiority in this world yielded than assumed.
I learned long ago from one of the greatest statesmen this
world ever produced, Sully, neither to adventure upon rash
attempts from too much confidence, nor to despair of success
in a great design from the appearance of difficulties. Without
attempting to judge of the future, which depends upon too
many accidents, much less to subject it to our precipitation in
bold and difficult enterprises, we should endeavor to subdue one
obstacle at a time, nor suffer ourselves to be depressed by their
greatness and their number. We oiig-ht never to despair of what
has been once accomplished. How many things has the idea of
impossible been annexed to, that have become easy to those
who knew how to take advantage of time, opportunity, lucky
moments, the faults of others, different dispositions, and an
infinite number of other circumstances!
I will inclose to you a copy of the resolution establishing a
board of war and ordnance. And, as you may well imagine
we are all inexperienced in this business, I should be extremely
obliged to you for any hints for the improvement of the plan,
which may occur to you, and for any assistance or advice you
CORRESPONDENCE. 405
may give me as a private correspondent, in the execution of it.
It is a great mortification to me, I confess, and I fear it will too
often be a misfortune to our country, that I am called to the
discharge of trusts to which I feel myself so unequal, and in
the execution of which I can derive no assistance from my
education or former course of life. But my country must com-
mand me, and wherever she shall order me, there I will go
without dismay.
TO SAMUEL H. PARSONS.
Philadelphia, 22 June, 177G.
Your obliging favor of the 3d of June has been too long un-
answered. I acknowledge the difficulty in ascertaining the
comparative merit of officers, and the danger of advancing
friends, where there is no uncommon merit. This danger cannot
be avoided by any other means than making it an invariable
rule to promote officers in succession. For if you make a King
the judge of uncommon merit, he will advance favorites without
merit, under color or pretence of merit. If you make a Minister
of State the judge, he will naturally promote his relations, con-
nections, and friends. If you place the power of judging of
extraordinary merit in an Assembly, you do not mend the
matter much. For, by all the experience J have had, I find
that assemblies have favorites, as well as kings and ministers.
The favorites of assemblies or the leading members, are not
always the most w^orthy ; I do not know whether they ever are.
These leading members have sons, brothers, and cousins, ac-
quaintances, friends, and connections of one sort or another,
near or remote ; and I have ever found these leading members
of assemblies as much under the influence of nature, and her
passions and prejudices, as kings and ministers. The principal
advantage and difference lies in this, that in an assembly there
are more guards and checks upon the infirmities of leading
members, than there are upon kings and ministers.
What, then, shall we say? Shall we leave it to the General
and the army? Is there not as much favoritism, as much of
nature, passion, prejudice, and partiality in the army, as in an
assembly? As much in a General, as a King or Minister?
406 CORRESPONDENCE.
Upon the whole, I Relieve it wisest to depart from the line of
succession as seldom as possible. But I cannot but think that
the power of departing from it at all, though liable to abuses
everywhere, yet safest in the hands of an Assembly.
But, in our American army, as that is circumstanced, it is as
difficult to settle a rule of succession as a criterion of merit.
We have troops in every province, from Georgia to New Hamp-
shire. A Colonel is killed in New Hampshire. The next Colonel
in the American Army to him is in Georgia. Must we send
the Colonel from Georgia to command the regiment in New
Hampshire ? Upon his journey he is seized with a fever and
dies. The next Colonel is in Canada. We must then send to
Canada for a Colonel to go to Portsmouth ; and, as the next
Colonel to him is in South Carolina, we must send a Colonel
from South Carolina to Canada to command that regiment.
These marches and counter-marches must run through all the
corps of officers, and will occasion such inextricable perplexities,
delays, and uncertainties, that we need not hesitate to pronounce
it impracticable and ruinous. Shall we say, then, that succes-
sion shall take place among the officers of every distinct army,
or in every distinct department ?
My own private opinion is, that we shall never be quite right
until every colony is permitted to raise its own troops, and the
rule of succession is established among the officers of the colony.
This, where there are troops of several colonies, serving in the
same camp, may be liable to some inconveniences. But these
will be fewer than upon any other plan you can adopt.
It is right, I believe, to make the rule of promotion among
captains and subalterns regimental only ; and that among field-
officers more general. But the question is, how general it shall
be. Shall it extend to the whole American army ? or only to
the whole district or department? or only to the army serving
at a particular place ?
That it is necessary to enlist an army to serve during the
war, or at least for a longer period than one year, and to offer
some handsome encouragement for that end, I have been con-
vinced a long time.i I would make this temptation to consist
partly in money and partly in land, and considerable in both.
' Compare with tliis sentiment the statement made by Mr. Hamilton. Ha-
millon's Works, vol. vii. p. G89.
CORRESPONDENCE. 407
It has been too long delayed, but I think it will now be soon
done.
What is the reason that New York must continue to embar-
rass the continent ? Must it be so forever ? What is the cause
of it? Have they no politicians capable of instructing and
forming the sentiments of their people ? Or are their people
incapable of seeing and feeling like other men ? One would
think that their proximity to New England would assimilate
their opinions and principles. One would think, too, that the
army would have some influence upon them. But it seems to
have none. New York is likely to have the honor of being the
very last of all in imbibing the genuine principles and the true
system of American policy. Perhaps she will never entertain
them at all.
TO JOHN SULLIVAN.
Philadelphia, 23 June, 1776.
Your agreeable favor of May 4th has lain by me unanswered
till now. The relation of your negotiations at New York in
order to convince the people of the utility and necessity of in-
stituting a new government, is very entertaining; and if you
had remained there a few weeks longer, I conjecture you would
have effected a change in the politics of that region.^ Is it
deceit or simple dulness in the people of that colony, which
occasions their eccentric and retrograde politics ?
Your late letter from Sorel gave us here many agreeable
feelings. We had read nothing but the doleful, the dismal,
and the horrible from Canada for a long time.
The sun-ender of the Cedars appears to have been a most
infamous piece of cowardice. The officer,^ if he has nothing to
say for himself more than I can think of, deserves the most
infamous death. It is the first stain upon American arms.
May immortal disgrace attend his name and character I I wish,
however, that he alone had been worthy of blame. We have
1 The greater part of the letter referred to is printed anonymously in Gor-
don's History, vol. ii. p. 269. It is a curious specimen of the poUtical manoeuvring
of that day.
- Major Butterfield.
408 CORRESPONDENCE.
thrown away Canada in a most scandalous manner. Pray did
not opening the trade to the upper country, and letting loose the
tories, bring upon us so many disasters ? For God's sake ex-
plain to me the causes of our miscarriages in that province.
Let us know the truth, which has too long been hidden from
us. All the military affairs in that province have been in great
confusion, and we have never had any proper returns or regular
information from thence. There is now a corps of officers who
will certainly act with more system and more precision, and
more spirit. Pray make us acquainted with every thing that is
\vanted, whether men, money, arms, ammunition, clothing, tents,
barracks, forage, medicines, or whatever else. Keep us con-
stantly informed ; give us line upon line.
I fear there is a chain of toryism extending from Canada
through New York and New Jersey into Pennsylvania, which
conducts misrepresentation and false information, and makes
impression here upon credulous, unsuspecting, ignorant whigs.
I wish it may not have for its object treasons and conspiracies
of a deeper die.
There is a young gentleman bred at college and the bar, an
excellent soldier, a good scholar, and a virtuous man, in your
brigade, who deserves a station far above that in which he
stands, that of adjutant to Colonel Greaton's regiment. Any
notice you may take of him will be gratefully acknowledged by
me as well as him.^ Prav let me know the state of the small-
pox, an enemy which we have more cause to fear than any
other. Is it among our troops ? Is it among the Canadians ?
I mean the inhabitants of the country. Can no effectual means
be used to annihilate the infection ? Cannot it be kept out of
the army ? The New England militia will be of no use, if they
come in ever so great numbers, if that distemper is to seize them
as soon as they arrive.
1 Nathan Rice, -who had been a student in the office of Mr. Adams at the
breaking out of the revolution, and left it to join the army, in which he served
with credit and distinction.
CORRESPONDENCE. 409
TO JOHN AVINTHROP.
Plailadelpliia, 23 June, 1776.
Your favor of June 1st is before me. It is now universally
acknowledged that we^are and must be independent. But still,
objections are made to a declaration of it. It is said that such
a declaration will arouse and unite Great Britain. But are they
not already aroused and united, as much as they will be ? Will
not such a declaration arouse and unite the friends of liberty,
the few who are left, in opposition to the present system? It
is also said that such a declaration will put us in the power
of foreign States ; that France will take advantage of us when
they see we cannot recede, and demand severe terms of us ; that
she, and Spain too, will rejoice to see Britain and America
wasting each other. But this reasoning has no weight with
me, because I am not for soliciting any political connection, or
military assistance, or indeed naval, from France. I wish for
nothing but commerce, a mere marine treaty with them.i And
this they will never grant until we make the declaration, and
this, I think, they cannot refuse, after we have made it.
The advantages which will result from such a declaration, are,
in my opinion, very numerous and very great. After that event
the colonies will hesitate no longer to complete their govern-
ments. They will establish tests, and ascertain the criminality
of toryism. The presses will produce no more seditious or
traitorous speculations. Slanders upon public men and mea-
sures will be lessened. The legislatures of the colonies will
exert themselves to manufacture saltpetre, sulphur, powder,
arms, cannon, mortars, clothing, and every thing necessary for
the support of life. Our civil governments will feel a vigor
hitherto unknown. Our military operations by sea and land
will be conducted w4th greater spirit. Privateers will swarm in
vast numbers. Foreigners will then exert themselves to supply
us with what we want. A foreimi court will not disdain to
"&'
' See vol. ii. pp. 488, 489, 503, 504. In a brief but very vahiable essay,
entitled, The Diplomacy of the Revolution, published at New York in 1852, Mr.
AV. H. Trescott points out with great clearness the origin of the neutral policy
of the United States. The language of this letter is only further corroborative
of the correctness of the statement in the autobiography, very properly noticed
by him as written at a much later jieriod. See that volume, p. 21, note.
VOL. IX. ^^
410 CORRESPONDENCE.
treat with us upon equal terms. Nay farther, in my opinion,
such a declaration, instead of uniting the people of Great Britain
against us, will raise such a storm against the measures of ad-
ministration as will obstruct the war, and throw the kingdom
into confusion.
A committee is appointed to prepare a confederation of the
colonies, ascertaining the terms and ends of the compact, and
the limits of the Continental Constitution ; and another com-
mittee is appointed to draw up a declaration that these colonies
are free and independent States. And other committees are
appointed for other purposes, as important. These committees
will report in a week or two, and then the last finishing strokes
will be given to the politics of this revolution. Nothing after
that will remain but war. I think I may then petition my
constituents for leave to return to my family, and leave the war
to be conducted by some others who understand it better. I
am w^eary, thoroughly weary, and ought to have a little rest.
I am grieved to hear, as I do from various quarters, of that
rage for innovation, which appears in so many wild shapes in
our province. Are not these ridiculous projects prompted, ex-
cited, and encouraged by disaffected persons, in order to divide,
dissipate, and distract the attention of the people at a time when
every thought should be employed, and every sinew exerted for
the defence of the country ? Many of the projects that I heard
of are not repairing the building that is on fire. They are pull-
ing the building down, instead of laboring to extinguish the
flames. The projects of county assemblies, town registers, and
town probates of wills, are founded in narrow, contracted no-
tions, sordid stinginess, and profound ignorance, and tend
directly to barbarism. I care not whom I offend by this lan-
guage. I blush to see such stuff in our public papers, which
used to breathe a spirit much more liberal.
I rejoice to see in the lists of both Houses so many names
respectable for parts and learning. I hope their fortitude and
zeal will be in proportion, and then I am sure their country will
have great cause to bless them.
CORRESPONDENCE. 411
TO AVILLIAM TUDOR.
Philadelpliia, 24 June, 1776.
Your favor of May 4th has lain by me till this time unan-
swered, and I have heard nothing from you since. I have
entertained hopes of seeing you here before now, as I heard
you intended such an excursion. I was much obliged to you
for your particular account of Major Austin and Mr. Rice ; the
first I find has the command at Castle William. The last is
gone to Canada, where, if he lives through the dangers of famine,
pestilence, and the sword, I hope General Gates will promote
him. I have written to the General concerning him, recom-
mending him to the General's notice and favor in as strong and
warm terms as I ever used in recommending any one. Rice
has got possession of my heart by his prudent and faithful
attention to the service.
What is the reason that New York is still asleep or dead in
politics and war ? Must it be always so ? Cannot the whole
congregation of patriots and heroes belonging to the army, now
in that province, inspire it with one generous sentiment ? Have
they no sense, no feeling, no sentiment, no passions ? While
every other colony is rapidly advancing, their motions seem to
be rather retrograde. The timid and trimming politics of some
men of large property here have almost done their business for
them. They have lost their influence, and grown obnoxious.
The quakers and proprietarians together have little weight.
New Jersey shows a noble ardor. Is there any thing in the
air or soil of New York unfriendly to the spirit of liberty?
Are the people destitute of reason or of virtue ? Or what is
the cause ?
I agree with you in your hopes that the Massachusetts will
proceed to complete her government. Y^ou wish me to be
there, but I cannot. Mr. Bowdoin or Dr. Winthrop, I hope,
will be chosen governor. When a few mighty matters are
accomplished here, I retreat, like Cincinnatus, to my plough,
and, like Sir William Temple, to my garden, and farewell poli-
tics. I am wearied to death ; some of you younger folk must
take your trick, and let me go to sleep. My children will
scarcely thank me for neglecting their education and interest
412 CORRESPONDENCE.
so long. They will be worse off than ordinary beggars, because
I shall teach them as a first principle not to beg. Pride and
want, though they may be accompanied with liberty, or at least
may live under a free Constitution, are not a very pleasant
mixture nor a very desirable legacy, yet this is all that I shall
leave them. Pray write me as often as you can.
It is reported here that Colonel Reed is intended for the Go-
vernor of New Jersey. I wish with all my heart he may. That
province is a spirited, a brave, and patriotic people. They want
nothing but a man of sense and principle at their head. Such
a one is Reed. His only fault is that he has not quite fire
enough. But this may be an advantage to him as governor.
His coolness, and candor, and goodness of heart, with his abili-
ties, will make that people very happy.
TO SAMUEL CHASE.
Philadelphia, 24 June, 1776.
I received your obliging favor of the 21st this morning, and I
thank you for it. Do not be angry with me.^ I hope I shall
atone for past sins of omission soon.
The express, which you mention, brought me such contradict-
ory accounts that I did not think it worth while to write to
you upon it. In general, Sullivan writes that he was intrench-
ing at the Sorel ; that the Canadians expressed a great deal of
joy at his appearance; that they assisted him with teams and
with wheat ; that he had ordered General Thompson with two
thousand men to attack the enemy, consisting of about two
hundred, according to his intelligence, at the Three Rivers, where
they were fortifying, and from the character of Thompson and
the goodness of his troops, he had much confidence of his suc-
1 " I am almost resolved not to inform you, that a general dissatisfaction pre-
vails here with our Convention. Read the papers, and be assured Frederick
speaks the sense of many counties. I have not been idle. I have appealed in
writing to the people. County after county is instructing.
" Remember me to Mrs. Adams, and all independent souls. Shall 1 send you
my circular letter '? Adieu.
" Your friend,
"S. Chase."
CORKESrONDENCE. 413
cess ; that lie hoped to drive away the enemy's ships, which had
passed the rapids of Richelieu. This narration of Sullivan's
was animating. But a letter from Arnold of the same date, or
the next day rather, was wholly in the dismals.
Gates is gone to Canada, and we have done every thing that
you recommended, and more, to support him. But for my own
part, I confess my mind is impressed with other objects, the
neglect of which appears to me to have been the source of all
our misfortunes in Canada and everywhere else. Make the
tree good, and the fruit will be good. A declaration of inde-
pendence, confederation, and foreign alliances, in season, would
have put a stop to that embarrassing opposition in Congress,
which has occasioned us to do the work of the Lord deceitfully
in Canada and elsewhere.
A resolution of your Convention was read in Congress this
morning,^ and the question was put whether your delegates
should have leave to go home, and whether those gi-eat ques-
tions should be postponed beyond the 1st of July. The deter-
mination was in the negative. We should have been happy to
have obliged your Convention and your delegates. But it is
now become public in the colonies that those questions are to
be brought on the 1st of July. The lower counties have in-
structed their members, as the Assembly of Pennsylvania have.
Jersey has chosen five new members, all independent souls, and
instructed them to vote on the 1st of July for independence.
There is a conference of committees from every county in
Pennsylvania now sitting in this city, who yesterday voted that
the delegates for this colony ought on the 1st of July to vote
for independence. This vote was not only unanimous, but I
am told by one of them, that all the members declared seriatim
that this was their opinion, and the opinion of the several coun-
ties and towns they represented, and many of them produced
instructions from their constituents to vote for that measure.
You see, therefore, that there is such a universal expectation
that the great question will be decided the 1st of July, and it
has been already so often postponed, that to postpone it again
would hazard convulsions and dangerous conspiracies. It must
then come on and be decided. I hope that before Monday
' This resolution is found in the American Archices, 4th series, vol. vi. c. 1845.
But no trace of it is to be seen in the Journal of Congress for this day.
35*
414 CORRESPONDENCE.
morning next we shall receive from Maryland instructions to
do right.
Pray send me yom* circular letter, and believe me, &c.
TO ARCHIBALD BULLOCK.
Philadelphia, 1 July, 1776.
Two days ago I received your favor of May 1st. I was
greatly disappointed, Sir, in the information you gave me, that
you should be prevented from revisiting Philadelphia. I had
flattered myself with hopes of your joining us soon, and not
only affording us the additional strength of your abilities and
fortitude, but enjoying the satisfaction of seeing a temper and
conduct here somewhat more agreeable to your wishes than
those which prevailed when you were here before. But I have
since been informed that your countrymen have done them-
selves the justice to place you at the head of their affairs, a
station in which you may perhaps render more essential service
to them and to America than you could here.
There seems to have been a great change in the sentiments
of the colonies since you left us, and I hope that a few months
will bring us all to the same way of thinking.
This morning is assigned for the greatest debate of all. A
declaration, that these colonies are free and independent States,
has been reported by a committee appointed some w^eeks ago
for that purpose, and this day or to-morrow is to determine its
fate. May Heaven prosper the new-born republic, and make it
more glorious than any former republics have been !
The smallpox has ruined the American army in Canada, and
of consequence the American cause. A series of disasters has
happened there, partly owing, I fear, to the indecision of Phila-
delphia, and partly to the mistakes or misconduct of our officers
in that department. But the smallpox, which infected every
man we sent there, completed our ruin, and has compelled us
to evacuate that important province. We must, however, regain
it sometime or other.
My countrymen have been more successful at sea in driving
CORRESPONDENCE. 415
all the men-of-war completely out of Boston harbor, and in
making prizes of a great number of transports and other vessels.
We are in daily expectation of an armament before New
York, where, if it comes, the conflict must be bloody. The
object is great which we have in view, and we must expect a
great expense of blood to attain it. But we should always
remember that a free constitution of civil government cannot
be purchased at too dear a rate, as there is nothing on this side
of the new Jerusalem of equal importance to mankind.
It is a cruel reflection, that a little more wisdom, a little more
activity, or a little more integrity would have preserved us
Canada, and enabled us to support this trying conflict at less
expense of men and money. But irretrievable miscarriages
ought to be lamented no further than to enable and stimulate
us to do better in future.
Your colleagues, Hall and Gwinnet, are here in good health
and spirits, and as firm as you yourself could wish them. Pre-
sent my compliments to Mr. Houston. Tell him the colonies
will have republics for their government, let us lawyers and
your divine ^ say what we will.
TO SAMUEL CHASE.
Philadelphia, 1 July, 1776.
Your favor by the post this morning, gave me much pleasure,^
but the generous and unanimous vote of your Convention gave
me much more. It was brought into Congress this morning,
just as we were entering on the great debate. That debate
took up the most of the day, but it was an idle mispence of
time, for nothing was said but what had been repeated and hack-
neyed in that room before, a hundred times, for six months past.
In the committee of tiie whole, the question was carried in
the affirmative, and reported to the house. A colony desired
it to be postponed until to-morrow. Then it will pass by a
1 Dr. Zubly.
2 An exact imitatloa of this letter is inserted in vol. iv. of this work, p. 56.
416 CORRESPONDENCE.
great majority; perhaps with almost unanimity. Yet I cannot
promise this. Because one or two gentlemen may possibly be
found, who will vote point-blank against the known and de-
clared sense of their constituents. Maryland, however, I have
the pleasure to inform you, behaved well. Paca, generously
and nobly.
Alas, Canada I we have found misfortune and disgrace in
that quarter. Evacuated at last. Transports arrived at Sandy
Hook, from whence we may expect an attack in a short time
upon New York or New Jersey, and our army not so strong as
we could wish. The militia of New Jersey and New England
not so ready as they ought to be.
The Romans made it a fixed rule never to send or receive am-
bassadors to treat of peace with their enemies, while their affairs
were in an adverse and disastrous situation. There was a gene-
rosity and magnanimity in this, becoming freemen. It flowed
from that temper and those principles, which alone can preserve
the freedom of a people. It is a pleasure to find our Americans
of the same temper. It is a good symptom, foreboding a good
end.
If you imagine that I expect this declaration will ward off"
calamities from this country, you are much mistaken. A bloody
conflict we are destined to endure. This has been my opinion
from the beginning. You will certainly remember my declared
opinion was, at the first Congress, when we 'found that we
could not agree upon an immediate non-exportation, that the
contest would not be settled without bloodshed ; and that if
hostilities should once commence, they would terminate in an
incurable animosity between the two countries. Every politi-
cal event since the nineteenth of April, 1775, has confirmed me
in this opinion. If you imagine that I flatter myself with hap-
piness and halcyon days after a separation from Great Britain,
you are mistaken again. I do not expect that our new govern-
ment will be so quiet as I could wish, nor that happy harmony,
confidence, and affection between the colonies, that every good
American ought to study, labor, and pray for, for a long time.
But, freedom is a counterbalance for poverty, discord, and
war, and more. It is your hard lot and mine to be called into
life at such a time. Yet, even these times have their pleasures.
CORRESPONDENCE. 417
TO MRS. ADAMS.
Philadelphia, 3 July, 1776.
Your favor 1 of 17th June, dated at Plymouth, was handed
me by yesterday's post. I was much pleased to find that you
had taken a journey to Plymouth, to see your friends, in the
long absence of one whom you may wish to see. The excur-
sion will be an amusement, and will serve your health. How
happy would it have made me to have taken this journey with
you I
I was informed, a day or two before the receipt of your letter,
that you was gone to Plymouth, by Mrs. Polly Palmer, who
was obliging enough, in your absence, to send me the particu-
lars of the expedition to the lower harbor against the men-of-
war. Her narration is executed with a precision and perspicuity
which would have become the pen of an accomplished historian.
I am very glad you had so good an opportunity of seeing
one of our little American men-of-war. Many ideas new to
you must have presented themselves in such a scene ; and you
will in future better understand the relations of sea engage-
ments.
I rejoice extremely at Dr. Bulfinch's petition to open a hos-
pital. But I hope the business will be done upon a larger
scale. I hope that one hospital will be licensed in every county,
if not in every town. I am happy to find you resolved to be
with the children in the first class. Mr. Whitney and Mrs.
Katy Quincy are cleverly through inoculation in this city.
The information you give me, of our friend's refusing his
appointment,^ has given me much pain, grief, and anxiety. I
believe I shall be obliged to follow his example. I have not
fortune enough to support my family, and, what is of more
importance, to support the dignity of that exalted station.^ It
is too high and lifted up for me, who delight in nothing so
much as retreat, solitude, silence, and obscurity. In private
life, no one has a right to censure me for following my own
inclinations in retirement, simplicity, and frugality. Jn public
' Letters of Mrs. Adams, vol. i. p. 102.
2 James Warren had been appointed a Judge of the Superior Court.
3 That of Chief Justice.
a2
418 COERESPONDENCE.
life, every man has a right to remark as he pleases. At least
he thinks so.
Yesterday, the greatest question was decided, which ever
was debated in America, and a greater, perhaps, never was nor
wiU be decided among men. A resolution was passed without
one dissenting colony, " that these United Colonies are, and of
right ought to be, free and independent States, and as such
they have, and of right ought to have, full power to make war,
conclude peace, establish commerce, and to do all other acts
and things which other States may rightfully do." You will
see in a few days a Declaration setting forth the causes which
have impelled us to this mighty revolution, and the reasons
which will justify it in the sight of God and man. A plan of
confederation will be taken up in a few days.
When I look back to the year 1761, and recollect the argu-
ment concerning writs of assistance in the superior court, which
I have hitherto considered as the commencement of this contro-
versy between Great Britain and America, and run through the
whole period, from that time to this, and recollect the series of
political events, the chain of causes and effects, I am surprised
at the suddenness as well as greatness of this revolution. Bri-
tain has been filled with folly, and America with wisdom. At
least, this is my judgment. Time must determine. It is the
will of Heaven that the two countries should be sundered for-
ever. It may be the will of Heaven that America shall suffer
calamities still more wasting, and distresses yet more dreadful.
If this is to be the case, it will have this good effect at least.
It will inspire us with many virtues, which we have not, and
correct many errors, follies and vices which threaten to disturb,
dishonor, and destroy us. The furnace of affliction produces
refinement, in States as well as individuals. And the new
governments we are assuming in every part will require a
purification from our vices, and an augmentation of our virtues,
or they will be no blessings. The people will have unbounded
power, and the people are extremely addicted to corruption and
venality, as well as the great. But I must submit all my hopes
and fears to an overruling Providence, in which, unfashionable
as the faith may be, I firmly believe.
CORRESPONDENCE. 419
3 July.
Had a Declaration of Independency been made seven months
ago, it would have been attended with many great and glorious
effects. We might, before this hour, have formed alliances with
foreign States. We should have mastered Quebec, and been
in possession of Canada. You will perhaps wonder how such
a declaration would have influenced our affairs in Canada, but
if I could write with freedom, I could easily convince you that
it would, and explain to you the manner how. Many gentle-
men in high stations and of great influence have been duped by
the ministerial bubble of commissioners to treat. And in real,
sincere expectation of this event, which they so fondly wished,
they have been slow and languid in promoting measures for the
reduction of that province. Others there are in the colonies
who really wished that our enterprise in Canada would be de-
feated, that the colonies might be brought into danger and dis-
tress between two fires, and be thus induced to submit. Others
really wished to defeat the expedition to Canada, lest the con-
quest of it should elevate the minds of the people too much to
hearken to those terms of reconciliation, which, they believed,
would be offered us. These jarring views, wishes, and designs,
occasioned an opposition to many salutary measures, which
were proposed for the support of that expedition, and caused
obstructions, embarrassments, and studied delays, which have
finally lost us the province.
All these causes, however, in conjunction, would not have
disappointed us, if it had not been for a misfortune which could
not be foreseen, and, perhaps, could not have been prevented —
I mean the prevalence of the smallpox among our troops. This
fatal pestilence completed our destruction. It is a frown of
providence upon us, which we ought to lay to heart.
But, on the other hand, the delay of this declaration to this
time has many great advantages attending it. The hopes of
reconciliation, which were fondly entertained by multitudes of
honest and well-meaning, though weak and mistaken people,
have been gradually and, at last, totally extinguished. Time
has been given for the whole people maturely to consider the
gi-eat question of independence, and to ripen their judgment,
dissipate their fears, and allure their hopes, by discussing it in
420 CORRESPONDENCE.
newspapers and pamphlets, by debating it in assemblies, con-
ventions, committees of safety and inspection, in town and
county meetings, as well as in private conversations, so that
the whole people, in every colony of the thirteen, have now
adopted it as their own act. This will cement the union, and
avoid those heats, and perhaps convulsions, which might have
been occasioned by such a declaration slx months ago.
But the day is past. The second day of July, 1776, will be
the most memorable epocha in the history of America. I am
apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding genera-
tions as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be com-
memorated, as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion
to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and
parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and
illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from
this time forward, forevermore.
You will think me transported with enthusiasm, but I am
not. I am well aware of the toil, and blood, and treasure, that
it will cost, us to maintain this declaration, and support and
defend these States. Yet, through all the gloom, I can see the
rays of ravishing light and glory. I can see that the end is
more than worth all the means, and that posterity will triumph
in that day's transaction, even although we should rue it, which
I trust in God we shall not.
TO SAMUEL CHASE.
Philadelphia, 9 July, 1776.
Yours of the 5th came to me the 8th. You will see by this
post, that the river is passed, and the bridge cut away. The
Declaration was yesterday published and proclaimed from that
awful stage in the State-house yard; by whom, do you think?
By the Committee of Safety, the Committee of Inspection, and
a great crowd of people. Three cheers rended the welkin. The
battalions paraded on the Common, and gave us ihefeu de joie,
notwithstanding the scarcity of powder. The bells rang all day
and almost all night. Even the chimers chimed away. The
CORRESPONDENCE. 421
election for the city was carried on, amidst all this lurry, with
the utmost decency and order. Who are chosen, I cannot say;
but the list was Franklin, Rittenhouse, Owen Biddle, Cannon,
Schlosser, Matlack, and Kuhl. Thus you see the efTect of men
of fortune acting against the sense of the people !
As soon as an American seal is prepared, I conjecture the
Declaration will be subscribed by all the members, which will
give you the opportunity you wish for, of transmitting your
name among the votaries of independence.^
I agree with you that we never can again be happy under a
single particle of British power. Indeed, this sentiment is very
universal. The arms are taken down from every public place.
The army is at Crown Point. We have sent up a great num-
ber of shipwrights to make a respectable fleet upon the lakes.
We have taken every measure to defend New York. The
militia are marching this day in a great body from Pennsylva-
nia. That of Jersey has behaved well, turned out universally.
That of Connecticut, I was told last night by Mr. Huntington,
was coming in the full number demanded of them, and must be
there before now. We shall make it do, this year, and if we
can stop the torrent for this campaign, it is as much as we
deserve, for our weakness and sloth in politics the last. Next
year we shall do better. New governments will bring new men
into the play, I perceive ; men of more mettle.
Your motion last fall for sending ambassadors to France
with conditional instructions, was murdered ; terminating in a
committee of secret correspondence, which came to nothing.
Thank you for the paper and resolves. You are atoning for
all past imperfections by your vigor, spirit, and unanimity.
Send along your militia for the flying camp ; do not let them
hesitate about their harvest. They must defend the field before
they can eat the fruit. I shall inclose to you Dr. Price.^ He i /^
is an independent, I think.
My compliments to Mr. Johnson, Mr. Carroll, and all your
friends whom I have the honor to know.
• " I hope ere this time the decisive blow is struck. Oppression, inhumanity,
and perfidy have compelled us to it. Blessed be men who effect the work ! I
envy you. How shall I transmit to posterity that I gave my assent ? " Mr. C.'s
letter.
2 Observations on Civil Liberty, for which Mr. Chase had written.
VOL. IX.
36
422 CORRESPONDENCE.
TO JOSEPH WARD.
Philadelphia, 10 July, 1776.
Yours of 1st July came duly to hand. The establishment of
the war-office, as you observe, has given me work enough ; more
than I have a relish for, and of a kind not very suitable to my
taste; but I must acquiesce. Should be greatly obliged to any
officer of the army for a hint of any improvement in the plan,
and for any assistance in the execution of it.
The continual reports of our disasters in Canada have not
intimidated the Congress. On the contrary, in the midst of
them, more decisive steps have been taken than ever, as you
must have seen, or will see before this reaches you. The Ro-
mans never would send or receive an ambassador to treat of
peace, when their affairs were in an adverse situation. This
generous temper is imitated by the Americans.
You hear there is not candor and harmony between some of
the members of this body. I wish you would mention the
names and particulars of the report. The names, I mean, of the
members between whom it is reported there is not candor and
harmony. The report is groundless. There is as much candor
and harmony between the members as generally takes place in
assemblies, and much more than could naturally be expected
in such an assembly as this. But there is a prospect now of
greater harmony than ever. The principal object of dispute is
now annihilated, and several members are left out.
In making a return of your division of the army, pray give
us the name and rank of every officer. We want to make an
army list for publication.
TO JONATHAN MASON.
Philadelphia, 18 July, 1776.
Your agreeable letter from Boston the 7th July was handed
me on Tuesday last by the post.
The confusions in America, inseparable from so great a revo-
lution in affairs, are sufficient to excite anxieties in the minds of
CORRESPONDENCE. 423
young gentlemen just stepping into life. Your concern for
the event of these commotions is not to your dishonor. But
let it not affect your mind too much. These clouds will be
dispersed, and the sky will become more serene.
I cannot advise you to quit the retired scene of which you
have hitherto appeared to be so fond, and engage in the noisy
business of war. I doubt not you have honor and spirit and
abilities sufficient to make a figure in the field ; and if the future
circumstances of your country should make it necessary, I hope
you would not hesitate to buckle on your armor. But at pre-
sent I see no necessity for it. Accomplishments of the civil
and political kind are no less necessary for the happiness of
mankind than martial ones. We cannot all be soldiers ; and
there will probably be in a very few years a greater scarcity of
lawyers and statesmen than of warriors.
The circumstances of this country from the years 1755 to
1758, during which period I was a student in Mr. Putnam's
office, were almost as confused as they are now, and the pros-
pect before me, my young friend, was much more gloomy than
yours.^ I felt an inclination, exactly similar to yours, for engag-
ing in active martial life, but I was advised, and, upon a con-
sideration of all circumstances, concluded, to mind my books.
Whether my determination was prudent or not, it is not possible
to say, but I never repented it. To attain the real knowledge
which is necessary for a lawyer, requires the whole time and
thoughts of a man in his youth, and it will do him no good to
dissipate his mind among the confused objects of a camp.
Noctiirnd versate manu^ versate diurnd, must be your motto.
I wish you had told me particularly what lawyers have opened
offices in Boston, and what progress is made in the practice,
and in the courts of justice. I cannot undertake to advise you,
whether you had better go into an office in Boston or not. I
rather think that the practice at present is too inconsiderable to
be of much service to you. You will be likely to be obliged
to waste much of your time in running of errands, and doing
trifling drudgery, without learning much. Depend upon it, it
is of more importance that you read much than that you draw
many writs. The common writs upon notes, bonds, and ac-
' Mr. Mason had been entered as a student in Mr. Adams's office
424 CORRESPONDENCE.
counts, are mastered in half an hour. Common declarations
for rent, and ejectment, and trespass, both of assault and bat-
tery and quare clausum fregit, are learned in very nearly as
short a time. The more difficult special declarations, and
especially the refinements of special pleadings, are never learned
in an office. They are the result of experience and long habits
of thinking. If you read Plowden's Commentaries, you will
see the nature of special pleadings. In addition to these, read
Instructor Clericalis, Mallory, Lilly, and look into Rastall and
Coke. Your time will be better spent upon these authors than
in dancing attendance upon a lawyer's office and his clients.
Many of our most respectable lawyers never did this at all.
Gridley, Pratt, Thacher, Sewall, Paine, never served regularly
in any office.
Upon the whole, my young friend, I wish that the state of
public affairs would have admitted of my spending more time
with you. I had no greater pleasure in this life than in assist-
ing young minds possessed of ambition to excel, which I very
well know to be your case. Let me entreat you not to be too
anxious about futurity. Mind your books. Sit down patiently
to Plowden's Commentaries ; read them through coolly, delibe-
rately, and attentively ; read them in course ; endeavor to
make yourself master of the point on which the case turns ;
remark the reasoning and the decision ; and tell me a year
hence whether your time has not been more agreeably and
profitably spent than in drawing writs and running of errands.
I hope to see you ere long. I am obliged to you for this letter,
and wish a continuance of your correspondence. I am anxious,
very anxious, for my dear Mrs. Adams and my babes. God
preserve them. I can do them no kind office whatever.
TO J. D. SERGEANT.
Philadelphia , 21 July, 1776.
Your favor of the 19th, from Trenton, reached me yesterday.
It is very true that Ave were somewhat alarmed at the last clause
in your constitution. It is a pity that the idea of returning
CORRESPONDENCE. 425
under the yoke was held up in so good a system, because it
gives something to say to a very unworthy party.^
I hope you will assume the style of the Commonwealth of Neiu
Jersey^ as soon as your new government is completed. Virginia
has done it, and it is the most consistent style.^
It is a great pleasure to learn that you have formally ratified
independency, and that your unanimity and firmness increase.
This will be the case everywhere, as the war approaches nearer.
An enemy's army brings a great heat with it, and warms all
before it. Nothing makes and spreads patriotism so fast. Your
ordinance against treasons will make whigs by the thousand.^
Nine tenths of the toryism in America has arisen from sheer
cowardice and avarice. But when persons come to see there
is greater danger to their persons and property from toryism
than whiggism, the same avarice and pusillanimity will make
them whigs. A treason law is in politics like the article for
shooting upon the spot a soldier who shall turn his back. It
turns a man's cowardice and timidity into heroism, because it
places greater danger behind his back than before his face.
While you are attending to military matters, do not forget
saltpetre, sulphur, powder, flints, lead, cannon, mortars.
It grieves me to hear that your people have a prejudice
against liberal education.* There is a spice of this everywhere.
But liberty has no enemy more dangerous than such a prejudice.
It is your business, my friend, as a statesman, to soften and
eradicate this prejudice. The surest mode of doing it is to
' " I am told you are alarmed at Philadelphia Avith the last clause in our char-
ter. That, aud another respecting judges, was hard fought ; especially that of
reconciliation, upon a motion to defer printing the copy till it could be con-
sidered." Mr. S.'s letter.
8 " However, we have formally ratified Independency, and assumed the style
of the Convention of the State of New Jersey. This, very unanimously, and the
votes go down by this express to the printer." 3Ir. S.'s letter.
3 " We are mending very fast here. East Jersey was always firm. West
Jersey will now move with vigor. The tories in some parts disturbed us, but
they have hurt us more by impeding the business of the Convention, and harass-
ing with an infinity of hearings. But for this we have provided a remedy by
an ordinance for trying treasons, seditions, and counterfeltings." il/r. &'s letter.
4 " We want wisdom here. Raw, young, and inexperienced as your humble
servant is, I am really forced to bear a principal part. Would to Heaven that
I could look round here, as when with you, and see a number in whose under-
standing I could confide. But we have a miserable prejudice against men of
education in this State ; plain men are generally returned, of sufficient honesty
and spirit, but most of them hardly competent to the penning of a common
vote." Mr. S.'s letter.
36*
426 CORRESPONDENCE,
persuade gentlemen of education to lay aside some of their airs
of scorn, vanity, and pride, in which it is a certain truth that
they sometimes indulge themselves. Gentlemen cannot expect
the confidence of the common people, if they treat them ill, or
refuse haughtily to comply with some of their favorite notions,
which may be most obligingly done, without the least deviation
from honor or virtue. Your delegates behave very well ; but I
wish for you among them. I think, however, that you judged
wisely in continuing in Convention, where I believe you have
been able to do more good than you could have done here.
I should be obliged to you for a line now and then. Mr. S.
Adams received your letter from Bristol. You will see the
new delegates for Pennsylvania. What is the cause that Mr.
Dickinson never can maintain his popularity for more than two
or three years together, as they tell me has ever been the case ?
He may have a good heart, and certainly is very ready with his
pen, and has a great deal of learning, but his head is not very
long nor clear.
TO THE DEPUTY SECRETARY OF MASSACHUSETTS.
Pliiladelphia, 25 July, 1776.
Sir, — I find myself under a necessity of applying to the
honorable General Court for leave to return home. I have
attended here so long and so constantly that I feel myself
necessitated to ask this favor, on account of my health as well
as on many other accounts.
I beg leave to propose to the honorable the General Court an
alteration in their plan of delegation in Congress, which, it ap-
pears to me, would be more agreeable to the health and conve-
nience of the members, and much more conducive to the public
good than the present. No gentleman can possibly attend to
an incessant round of thinking, speaking, and writing upon the
most intricate as well as important concerns of human society,
from one end of the year to another, without injury to his men-
tal and bodily health. I would, therefore, humbly propose that
the honorable Court would be pleased to appoint nine members
to attend in Congress, three or five at a time. In this case, six
CORRESPONDENCE. 427
or four might be at home at a time, and every member might
be relieved once in three or four months. In this way you
would always have members in Congress who would have in
their minds a complete chain of the proceedings here, as well
as in the General Court, both kinds of which knowledge are
necessary for a proper conduct here. In this way the lives and
health, and, indeed, the sound minds of the delegates here would
be in less danger than they are at present, and in my humble
opinion, the public business would be much better done.
This proposal, however, is only submitted to the consideration
of that body whose sole right it is to judge of it. For myself,
I must entreat the General Court to give me leave to resign,
and immediately to appoint soiTie other gentleman in my room.
The consideration of my own health and the circumstances of
my family and private affairs would have little weight with me,
if the sacrifice of these was necessary for the public ; but it is
not. Because those parts of the business of Congress for which,
if for any, I have any qualifications, being now nearly com-
pleted, and the business that remains being chiefly military and
commercial, of which I know very little, there are multitudes of
gentlemen in the province much fitter for the public service here
than I am.
With great respect to the General Court, &c.
TO JAMES WARREN.
Philadelphia, 27 July, 1776.
I have directed a packet to you by this day's post, and shall
only add a few words by Fessenden. I assure you the neces-
sity of your sending along fresh delegates here is not chime-
rical. Mr. Paine has been very ill for this whole week, and
remains in a bad way. He has not been able to attend Con-
gress for several days, and if I was to judge by his eye, his
skin, and his cough, I should conclude he never w^ould be
fit to do duty there again, without a long intermission, and a
course of air, exercise, diet, and medicine. In this T may be
428 COREESPONDENCE.
mistaken. Mr. S. Adams, between you and me, is completely
worn out. I wish he had gone home six months ago, and rested
himself. Then he might have done it without any disadvan-
tage. But, in plain English, he has been so long here, and his
strength, spirits, and abilities so exhausted, that a hundred such
delegates here would not be worth a groat. My case is worse.
My face is grown pale, my eyes weak and inflamed again, my
nerves tremulous, and my mind weak as water. Night sweats
and feverous heats by day are returned upon me, which is an
infallible symptom with me that it is time to throw off all care
for a time, and take my rest. I have several times, with the
blessing of God, saved my life in this way, and am now deter-
mined to attempt it once more.
You must be very speedy in appointing other delegates, or
you will not be represented here. Go home I will, if I leave
the Massachusetts without a member here. You know my
resolutions in these matters are as fixed as fate; or if you do not
know it, I do. I know better than anybody what my constitu-
tion will bear, and what it will not, and, you may depend upon
it, I have already tempted it beyond prudence and safety. A
few months' rest and relaxation will recruit me, but this is abso-
lutely necessary for that end. I have written a resignation to
the General Court, and am determined to take six months' rest
at least. I wish to be released from Philadelphia forever, but
in case the General Court should wish otherwise, which I hope
they will not, I do not mean surlily to refuse to serve them. If
you appoint such a number that we can have a respite once in
six months at least, or once in three, if that is more convenient,
I should be willing to take another trick or two. But I will
never again undertake upon any other terms, unless I should
undertake for a year, and bring my wife and four children
with me, as many other gentlemen here have done. Which, as
I know it would be infinitely more agreeable, and for the benefit
of my children, so in my sincere opinion it would be cheaper
for the province; because I am sure I could bring my whole
family here and maintain it cheaper than I can live here single
at board with a servant and two horses.
CORRESPONDENCE. 429
TO FRANCIS DANA.
Philadelphia, IG August, 1776.
Your obliging favor of July 28th I duly received. I am glad
to hear that your third freshmaiiship is a busy one. I think
you commence a fourth, at Philadelphia, very soon. I have pre-
sumed to lay before the General Court a proposal to choose
nine delegates, that their duty may be discharged here in rota-
tion. The service here is too hard for any one to be continued
so long, at least for me. Who will be thought of, I know not.
I wish they may be characters respectable in every point of
view. Mr. Bowdoin, Dr. Winthrop, Major Hawley, General
Warren, Dana, Lowell, Sewall, Sullivan, Sargeant, present
themselves, with many others, and cannot leave the Court at a
loss.
You inform me that the House have taken up the subject of
government, and appointed a committee to prepare a form.
And although they have not joined the Board in this important
business, yet I hope they will prepare a plan which the Board
will approve. I fear I was mistaken, when, in my last to you, I
foretold that every colony would have more than one branch to
its legislature. The Convention of Pennsylvania has voted for
a single Assembly. Such is the force of habit; and what sur-
prises me not a little is, that the American philosopher ^ should
have so far accommodated himself to the customs of his coun-
trymen as to be a zealous advocate for it. No country ever
will be long happy, or ever entirely safe and free, which is thus
governed. The curse of 2ijus vag'um will be their portion.
I wish with you that the genius of this country may expand
itself, now the shackles are knocked off, which have heretofore
confined it. But there is not a little danger of its becoming
still more contracted. If a sufficient scope is not allowed for
the human mind to exert itself, if genius and learning are not
sufficiently encouraged, instead of improving by this revolution,
we shall become more despicably narrow, timid, selfish, base,
and barbarous.
The little pamphlet you mention was printed by Colonel
Lee, who insisted upon it so much that it could not be decently
' Franklin.
430 CORKESPONDENCE.
refused. Instead of wondering that it was not enlarged, the
wonder ought to be that it was ever written.^ It is a poor
scrap. The negative given in it to the first magistrate will be
adopted nowhere but in South Carolina. Virginia has done
very well. I hope the next sister will do equally. I hope the
Massachusetts will call their government a commonwealth.
Let us take the name manfully, and let the first executive
magistrate be the head of the Council Board, and no more.
Our people will never submit to more, and I am not clear that
it is best they should. The " Thoughts on Government" were
calculated for southern latitudes, not northern. But if the
House should establish a single Assembly as a legislature, I
confess it would grieve me to the very soul ; and however
others may be, I shall certainly never be happy under such a
government. However, the right of the people to establish such
a government as they please, will ever be defended by me,
whether they choose wisely or foolishly.
Mr. Wrixon has found hard luck in America as well as in
Europe. I have never seen nor heard of any reason to doubt
the sincerity of his professions of regard to our country. But
he is about returning. I am sorry that he has just cause to
return. The Baron ^ is dead; has not left a very good character.
There is one particular, my friend, in which our province uses
her delegates here very unkindly, and by the same means injures
herself and all the United States. I mean in not sending us
your journals. To this moment, I do not know one step that
has been taken to raise the troops for New York and Ticon-
deroga. Nor the name of one officer, nor when they marched.
The interest and reputation of our province suffer beyond
measure by such a confused way of doing business. We ought
to be minutely informed of the characters and connections of
all the officers you send into the service, as well as of their
names. You ought to rank and number the Massachusetts
regiments, and publish a list of all the officers' names.
' Thoughts on Government. 2 Woedtke.
CORRESPONDENCE. 431
TO SAMUEL H. PARSONS.
Philadelphia, 19 August, 1776.
Your favors of the 13th and 15th are before me. The gentle-
men you recommend for Majors, Chapman and Dyer, will be
recommended by the Board of War, and I hope agreed to in
Congress.
I thank you for your observations upon certain field-officers.
Patterson, Shepard, and Brooks, make the best figure, I think,
upon paper. It is my misfortune that 1 have not the least
acquaintance with any of these gentlemen, having never seen
any one of them, or heard his name till lately. This is a little
remarkable. Few persons in the province ever travelled over
the whole of it more than I have, or had better opportunities to
know every conspicuous character. But I do not so much as
know from what parts of the province Shepard and Brooks
come, of what families they are, their education or employ-
ments. Should be very glad to be informed.
Lieutenant-Colonel Henshaw has been recommended to me
by Colonel Reed for promotion as a useful officer. But upon
the whole, I think the list you have given me does not shine.
I am very much ashamed of it. I am so vexed sometimes as
almost to resolve to make interest to be a Colonel myself. I
have almost vanity enough to think that I could make a figure
in such a group. But a treacherous, shattered constitution is
an eternal objection against my aspiring to military command.
If it was not for this insuperable difficulty, I should certainly
imitate old Noll Cromwell in one particular, that is, in launching
into military life after forty, as much as I dislike his character
and example in others. But enough of this.
I wish I could find materials anywhere in sufficient quantities
to make good officers. A brave and able man, wherever he is,
shall never want my vote for his advancement ; nor shall an
ignorant, awkward dastard ever want it for his dismission.
Congress must assume a higher tone of discipline over officers
as well as over the men.
With regard to encouragements in money and in land for
soldiers to enlist during the war, I have ever been in favor of it,
as the best economy and the best policy, and I have no doubt
432 CORRESPONDENCE.
that rewards in land will be given, after the war is over. But
the majority are not of my mind for promising it now. I am
the less anxious about it, for a reason which does not seem to
have much weight however with the majority. Although it
may cost us more, and we may put now and then a battle to
hazard by the method we are in, yet we shall be less in danger
of corruption and violence from a standing army, and our mili-
tia will acquire courage, experience, discipline, and hardiness in
actual service.
I wish every man upon the continent was a soldier, and
obliged, upon occasion, to fight, and determined to conquer or
to die. Flight was unknown to the Romans. I wish it was
to Americans. There was a flight from Quebec, and worse
than a flight at the Cedars. If we do not atone for these dis-
graces, we are undone.
A more exalted love of their country, a more enthusiastic
ardor for military glory, and deeper detestation, disdain, and
horror of martial disgrace must be excited among our people, or
we shall perish in infancy. I will certainly give my voice for
devoting to the infernal gods every man, high or low, who shall
be convicted of bashfulness on the day of battle.
P. S. Since the above was written Congress has accepted
the report of the Board of War, and appointed Dyer and Chap-
man, Majors. I had much pleasure in promoting Dyer, not
only from his own excellent character, but from respect to my
good friend his father.
TO JONATHAN MASON.
Philadelphia, 21 August, 1776.
I had by yesterday's post the pleasure of your letter of the
12th instant. The account you give me of the books you have
read and studied is very agreeable to me. Let me request you
to pursue my lord Coke. The first Institute you say you have
diligently studied. Let me advise you to study the second,
third, and fourth Institutes with equal diligence. My lord Coke
is justly styled the oracle of the law, and whoever is master of
COERESPONDENCE. 433
his writings, is master of the laws of England. I should not
have forgotten his Reports or his Entries. These, equally with
his Institutes, demand and deserve the attention of the student.
It is a matter of curiosity rather than use, of speculation
rather than practice, to contemplate what Mr. Selden calls the
anliquce leg-is fades. Yet I know a young mind as active and
inquisitive as yours will not be easy without it. Home, Brac-
ton, Britton, Fleta, Thornton, Glanville, and Fortescue will
exhibit to you this ancient face, and there you may contem-
plate all its beauties.
The Year-Books are also a great curiosity. You must make
yourself sufficiently acquainted with law-french and with the
abbreviated law-hand, to read and understand the cases reported
in these books, when you have occasion to search a point. The
French language will not only be necessary for you as a lawyer,
but, if I mistake not, it will become every day more and more
a necessary accomplishment of a gentleman in America.
There is another science, my dear Sir, that I must recom-
mend to vour most attentive consideration, and that is the Civil
Law. You will find it so interspersed with history, oratory, law,
politics, and war and commerce, that you will find advantages
in it every day. Wood, Domat, Aylitfe, Taylor, ought to be
read. But these should not suffice. You should go to the foun-
tain-head, and drink deep of the Pierian spring. Justinian's
Institutes, and all the commentators upon them that you can
find, you ought to read. The Civil Law will come as fast into
fashion in America as the French language, and from the same
causes.
I think myself much obliged to Mr. Martin for his politeness
to you, and should advise you to accept of his kind offer, pro-
vided you do not find the practice of his office interferes too
much with your studies, which I do not think it will.
TO JOSEPH HAWLEY.
Philadelphia, 25 August, 1776,
It is so long since I had the pleasure of writing to you, or the
honor of receiving a letter from you, that I have forgotten on
voTi. Tx. 37 B 2
434 CORRESPONDENCE.
which side the balance of the account lies, at least which wrote
the last letter. But ceremonies of this kind ought not to inter-
rupt a free communication of sentiments in times so critical
and important as these.
We have been apt to flatter ourselves with gay prospects of
happiness to the people, prosperity to the State, and glory to
our arms, from those free kinds of governments which are to be
created in America. And it is very true that no people ever
had a finer opportunity to settle things upon the best founda-
tions. But yet I fear that human nature will be found to be
the same in America as it has been in Europe, and that the
true principles of liberty will not be sufliciently attended to.
Knowledge is among the most essential foundations of
liberty. But is there not a jealousy or an envy taking place
among the multitude, of men of learning, and a wish to exclude
them from the public councils and from military command? I
could mention many phenomena in various parts of these States
which indicate such a growing disposition. To what cause
shall I attribute the surprising conduct of the Massachusetts
Bay ? How has it happened that such an illiterate group of
general and field-ofhcers have been thrust into public view by
that commonwealth, which, as it has an indisputable superiority
of power to every other in America, as well as of experience
and skill in war, ought to have set an example to her sisters, by
sending into the field her best men, men of the most genius,
learning, reflection, and address ? Instead of this, every man
you send into the army, as a General or a Colonel, exhibits a
character which nobody ever heard of before, as an awkward,
illiterate, illbred man. Who is General Fellows ? And who
is General Brickett ? Who is Colonel Holman, Cary, Smith ?
This conduct is sinking the character of the province into the
lowest contempt, and is injuring the service beyond description.
Able officers are the soul of an army. Good officers will make
good soldiers, if you give them human nature as a material to
work upon. But ignorant, unambitious, unfeeling, unprincipled
officers will make bad soldiers of the best men in the world.
I am ashamed and grieved to my inmost soul for the disgrace
brought upon the Massachusetts in not having half its propor-
tions of general officers. But there is not a single man among
all our Colonels that I dare to recommend for a general officer,
i
CORRESPONDENCE. 435
except Knox and Porter, and these are so low down in the list,
that it is dangerous promoting them over the heads of so many.
If this is the effect of popular elections, it is but a poor pane-
gyric upon such elections. I fear we shall find that popular
elections are not oftener determined upon pure principles of
merit, virtue, and public spirit than the nominations of a Court,
if we do not take care. I fear there is an infinity of coiTuption
in our elections already crept in. All kinds of favor, intrigue,
and partiality in elections are as real corruption, in my mind,
as threats and bribes. A popular government is the worst curse
to which human nature can be devoted, when it is thoroughly
corrupted. Despotism is better. A sober, conscientious habit
of electing for the public good alone must be introduced, and
every appearance of interest, favor, and partiality reprobated,
or you will very soon make wise and honest men wish for
monarchy again ; nay, you will make them introduce it into
America.
There is another particular in which it is manifest that the
principles of liberty have not sufficient weight in men's minds,
or are not well understood.
Equality of representation in the legislature is a first prin-
ciple of liberty, and the moment the least departure from such
equality takes place, that moment an inroad is made upon
liberty. Yet, this essential principle is disregarded in many
places in several of these republics. Every county is to have
an equal voice, although some counties are six times more
numerous and twelve times more wealthy. The same iniquity
will be established in Congress. Rhode Island will have an
equal weight with the Massachusetts, the Delaware govern-
ment with Pennsylvania, and Georgia with Virginia. Thus
we are sowing the seeds of ignorance, corruption, and injustice
in the fairest field of liberty that ever appeared upon earth, even
in the first attempts to cultivate it. You and I have very little
to hope or expect for ourselves. But it is a poor consolation,
under the cares of a whole life spent in the vindication of the
principles of liberty, to see them violated in the first formation
of governments, erected by the people themselves on their own
authority, without the poisonous interposition of kings or
priests.
436 CORRESPONDENCE.
TO AVILLIAM TUDOR.
Philadelphia, 29 August, 1776.
I sit down now in the character of a schoolmaster, or a fellow
of a college, to give myself airs, the pedantry and impertinence
of which I have no doubt you will pardon, as the precepts I am
about to deliver are of such vast importance to the public and
so little practised, although they are so very easy and natural.
You must be sensible that intelligence is of the last conse-
quence to the Congress, to the Assemblies, and to the public
at large. It ought, therefore, to be transmitted as quick and
frequently, and with as much exactness and particularity, as
possible. In time of war, the letters from Generals and other
officers of the army are usually the memorials and documents
from whence annals are afterwards compiled and histories
composed. They cannot be too careful, therefore, to transmit
circumstantial narrations of facts, any more than, for their own
safety, success, and glory, they can omit any means of obtain-
ing the most exact, particular, and constant information. I
have suffered inexpressible vexation upon many occasions, when
I have seen public letters containing vague sketches and imper-
fect hints of enterprises and movements both of friends and
enemies.
When an officer sits down to write a relation of a skirmish
or a battle, I should think his first care would be to ascertain
and describe the force of the enemy, their numbers, their com-
manders, their appointments, their motions, the situation of
their encampment, the ground they occupied, or were attempt-
ing to possess themselves of. In the next place, I should think
he would tell you the number of men which he sent against the
enemy, the officer to whom he gave the command, the other
general officers under him, the names of the regiments which
composed the party, and then give you a detail of the marches
and countermarches, the motions and manoeuvres of both ene-
mies and friends during the contention, the result of the whole
transaction, on which side victory declared herself, and the
number of killed and wounded on each side, the number of
officers especially, and among them the most eminent by name.
All these particulars, together with the loss or acquisition of
CORRESPONDENCE. 437
arms, ammunition, baggage, ordnance, and stores, ought to be
related with as much precision as the writer can obtain. Re-
collect the letter of Colonel Campbell, lately taken prisoner at
Boston, relating the circumstances of his captivity ; how clearly
and precisely he states his own strength and that of his enemy!
how minutely he remembers every circumstance of the engage-
ment! When facts are related in this manner, the reader, the
public, and posterity are enabled to form a judgment upon the
whole, to decide what is the consequence of the event, to deter-
mine the character and conduct of commanders and of troops,
to ascertain their merit or demerit. In short, to pass just reflec-
tions, to praise or blame with propriety, to reward or punish
with justice.
Read the relation of the battle between Catiline and his
adversaries, in Sallust. You see the combatants. You feel the
ardor of the battle. You see the blood of the slain, and you
hear the wounded sigh and groan. But if you read our Ame-
rican relations of battles and sieges, in our newspapers or in
private letters, or indeed in public official letters, you see little
of this accuracy. You are left in confusion and uncertainty
about every thing. It may one day be your fortune to be
obliged to convey information to the public of the course of the
events and transactions of a war, and whenever it is, I doubt
not it will be faithfully done. At present, except by the com-
mander-in-chief, and one or two others, it is done very super-
ficially, crudely, and confusedly. A general officer should spare
no pains to make himself master of the epistolary style, which
is easy, natural, simple, and familiar, and of the historical style,
too, which is equally simple, although a little more grave,
solemn, and noble. Xenophon, Caesar, Wolfe, Lee, are all
indebted for a very large share of their fame to their pens.
The strange uncertainty in which we are still involved, con-
cerning the late skirmishes upon Long Island, has given rise
to the foregoing observations. My friends have been a little
negligent in not writing me a line upon this occasion. 1 think
we have suffered in our reputation for generalship in permitting
the enemy to steal a march upon us. Greene's sickness, I con-
jecture, has been the cause of this. We have not been suffi-
ciently vigilant in obtaining information of the motions and
numbers of the enemy after their landing on Long Island, in
37*
438 CORRESPONDENCE.
reconnoitring them, and in keeping out advanced guards and
patrolling parties. Our officers do not seem sufficiently sensible
of the importance of an observation of the King of Prussia, that
stratagem^ ambuscade, and ambush are the sublimest chapter
in the art of war. Regular forces are never surprised. They
are masters of rules for guarding themselves in every situation
and contingency. The old officers among them are full of
resources, wiles, artifices, and stratagems, to deceive, decoy,
and overreach their adversaries. We must oppose art to art.
We must not disdain to learn of them. Fas est et ah hoste
doceri.
My mind is more and more engaged with the thoughts of the
importance of introducing into our army officers of parts and
ambition. Captain Lee has been constantly upon my mind
ever since you mentioned him. His father's merit and his own
demand promotion for him. Pray let me know who are Nixon's
Lieutenant- Colonel and Major. Who are Learned's Lieute-
nant-Colonel and Major? You said there were other young
officers of parts and spirit in Glover's regiment. Let me know
the name and character of every one of them, I conjure you.
Have we not put too much to the hazard in sending the
greatest part of the army over to Long Island, from whence
there is no retreat? Will not the enemy, by making regular
approaches upon us, be able to force us, by means of their
bombs and carcasses, out of our lines ?
2 September.
Sol The fishers have set a seine, and a whole school, a
whole school of fish have swum into it, and been caught ! The
fowlers have set a net, and a whole flock of pigeons have
alighted on the bed, and the net has been drawn over them.
But the most insolent thing of all is, sending one of those very
pigeons as a flutterer to Philadelphia,^ in order to decoy the
great flock of all. Did you ever see a decoy duck or a decoy
brant ?
Thank you for your last letter. There are a few words in it,
which contain a hint of something, which, if fact, has been
industriously hidden from us. " By the action of last Tuesday,
we are convinced that many of our men are cowards." I beg
1 John Sullivan.
CORRESPONDENCE. 439
of you to explain this, in detail. Do you mean the men who
were in the skirmish ? Those in the lines on Long Island, or
those in New York ? Do not subscribe your name. It shall
be a secret. But I conjure you, as you love your country, to
let me know.
20 September.
We have so many reports here of the infamous cowardice of
the New England troops, especially of Fellows's and Parsons's
brigades, in running away in spite of their two Generals, and
General Washington too, that I am ashamed of my country.
Pray, let me know the truth, and w^iether there is less courage
in the northern than southern troops. The report of Fellows's
and Parsons's brigades is confirmed by the General's letter.
TO SAMUEL COOPER,
Philadelphia, 4 September, 1776.
Mr. Hare, a brother of Mr. Robert Hare, the porter brewer in
this city, is bound to Boston. He has boarded some time in
the same house with me, and is very desirous of seeing the
town of Boston. He is travelling to Boston merely from the
curiosity of a traveller, and meddles not with politics. He has
an inclination to see the public buildings, your church and the
chapel particularly. I should be much obliged to you, if you
would procure him the sight of as many of the public buildings
in town as you can conveniently.
Our Generals, I fear, have made a mistake in retreating from
Long Island. I fear they will retreat from the city of New
York next. These are disagreeable events. I do not like these
measures. I wish there was more firmness. But let not these
things discourage. If they get possession of New York, Long
Island, and Staten Island, these are more territory than their
whole army can defend this year. They must keep their force
together. The instant they divide it they are ruined. They
cannot march into the country, for before they get ten miles into
the country they are surrounded, or their retreat cut off. They
cannot go up the North River to any purpose, because a few
440 CORRESPONDENCE.
months will make ice in it, in which their vessels cannot live.
They must keep the most of their ships in the harbor of New
York to defend their army. I sometimes think that Providence,
against our own opinions and inclinations, has provided better
for us in this instance than our own wisdom would have done.
Had the enemy's fleet and army been kept from Long Island,
they must and would have made an effort elsewhere for winter
quarters. At Staten Island they could not have wintered. They
must therefore have wintered at Boston, Rhode Island, or have
gone to the southward, to Virginia, one of the Carolinas, or
Georgia, and either of these cases would perhaps have been
worse for us. The panic w^hich is spread upon this occasion, is
weak and unmanly ; it excites my shame and indignation.
But it is wearing off. If our whole army had been cut to
pieces, it would have been shameful to have been so intimi-
dated, as some are or pretend to be. Congress, I hope, will
stand firm.
TO JAMES WARREN.^
Philadelphia, 8 September, 1776.
I am going to-morrow m.orning on an errand to Lord Howe,
not to beg a pardon, I assure you, but to hear what he has to
say. He sent Sullivan here to let us know that he wanted a
conversation with some members of Congress. We are going
to hear him. But as Congress have voted that they cannot
send members to talk with him in their private capacities, but
will send a committee of their body as representatives of the
free and independent States of America, I presume his Lord-
ship cannot see us, and I hope he will not; but if he should,
the whole will terminate in nothing. Some think it will occa-
sion a delay of military operations, which they say we much
want. I am not of this mind. Some think it will clearly
throw the odium of continuing this war on his Lordship and his
master. I wish it may. Others think it will silence the tories and
establish the timid whigs. I wish this also, but do not expect
1 The letters which follow, relating to the visit of the committee ot Congress
to Lord Howe, should be read in connection with the autobiography, vol. iv.
pp. 75-81.
CORRESPONDENCE. 441
it. But all these arguments, and twenty others as mighty,
would not have convinced me of the necessity, propriety, or
utility of this embassy, if Congress had not determined on it.
I was totis viribiis against it, from first to last. But upon this
occasion New Hampshire, Connecticut, and even Virginia gave
way. All sides agreed in sending me. The stanch and intre-
pid, I suppose, such as were enemies to the measure, as well as
myself, pushed for me, that as little evil might come of it as
possible. Others agreed to vote for me in order to entice some
of our inflexiblcs to vote for the measure. You will hear more
of this embassy. It will be famous enough.
Your secretary 1 will rip about this measure, and well he
may. Nothing, I assure you, but the unanimous vote of Con-
gress, the pressing solicitation of the firmest men in Congress,
and the particular advice of my own colleagues, at least of Mr.
Hancock and Mr. Gerry, would have induced me to accept this
trust.
TO SAMUEL ADAMS.
8 Sei^tember, 1770.
To-morrow morning Dr. Franklin, Mr. Rutledge, and your
humble servant set off to see that rare curiosity. Lord Howe.
Do not imagine from this that a panic has spread to Philadel-
phia. By no means. This is only refinement in policy. It
has a deep, profound reach, no doubt. So deep that you can-
not see to the bottom of it, I dare say. I am sure I cannot.
Do not, however, be concerned. When you see the whole, as
you will ere long, you will not find it very bad. I will write you
the particulars as soon as I shall be at liberty to do it.
SAMUEL ADAMS TO JOHN ADAMS.
Boston, 16 September, 1776.
I very gratefully acknowledge the receipt of your letter, dated
the 2 of August. I should have written to you from this place
' Samuel Adams.
- Left blank in the original. It refers to a letter written tlie 18th.
442 CORRESPONDENCE.
before, but I have not had leisure. My time is divided between
Boston and Watertown, and though we are not engaged in
matters of such magnitude as now employ your mind, there are
a thousand things which call the attention of every man who is
concerned for his country.
Our Assembly have appointed a committee to prepare a form
of government ; they have not yet reported. I believe they will
agree in two legislative branches. Their great difficulty seems
to be to determine upon a free and adequate representation.
They are at present an unwieldy body. I will inform you more
of this, when I shall have the materials.
The defence of this town, you know, has lain much upon our
minds. Fortifications are erected upon several of the islands,
which I am told require at least eight thousand men. You
shall have a particular account, when I am at leisure. By my
manner of writing you may conclude that I am now in haste.
I have received no letter from Philadelphia or New York since
1 was favored with yours, nor can I find that any other person
has. It might be of advantage to the common cause for us to
know what is doing at both those important places. We have
a report that a committee is appointed (as the expression is)
" to meet the Howes," and that you are one. This, without
flattery, gave me pleasure. I am indeed at a loss to conceive
how such a movement could be made consistently with the
honor of the Congress, but I have such an opinion of the wis-
dom of that body, that I must not doubt of the rectitude of the
measure. I hope they will be vigilant and firm, for I am told
that Lord Howe is, though not a great man, an artful courtier.
May God give us wisdom, fortitude, perseverance, and every
other virtue necessary for us to maintain that independence,
which we have asserted! It would be ridiculous indeed, if we
were to return to a state of slavery in a few weeks after we had
thrown off the yoke and asserted our independence. The body
of the people of America, I am persuaded, would resent it. But
why do I write in this style ? I rely upon the Congress and
the committee. I wish, however, to know a little about this
matter, for I confess I cannot account for it in my own mind.
I will write to you soon. In the mean time, adieu.
What has been the issue of the debates upon a weighty sub-
ject when I left you, and another matter (you know what I
CORRESPONDENCE. 443
mean) of great importance ? It is high time they were finished.
Pay my due regards to the President, Messrs. Paine, Gerry,
Colonel Lees, and other friends.
TO SAMUEL ADAMS.
Philadelplila, 17 September, 1776.
In a few lines of the 8th instant I promised you a more par-
ticular account of the conference. On Monday, the committee
set ofi' from Philadelphia, and reached Brunswick on Tuesday
night. Wednesday morning, they proceeded to Amboy, and
from thence to Staten Island, where they met the Lord Howe,
by whom they were politely received and entertaijied. His lord-
ship opened the conference by giving us an account of the
motive which first induced him to attend to the dispute with
America, which he said was the honor which had been done to
his family by the Massachusetts Bay, which he prized very
highly. From whence I concluded, in my own mind, that his
lordship had not attended to the controversy earlier than the
Port Bill and the Charter Bill, and consequently must have a
very inadequate idea of the nature as well as of the rise and
progress of the contest.
His lordship then observed, that he had requested this inter-
view, that he might satisfy himself whether there was any pro-
bability that America would return to her allegiance ; but he
must observe to us, that he could not acknowledge us as mem-
bers of Congress, or a committee of that body, but that he only
desired this conversation with us as private gentlemen, in hopes
that it might prepare the way for the people's returning to their
allegiance and to an accommodation of the disputes between
the two countries ; that he had no power to treat with us as
independent States, or in any other character than as British
subjects and private gentlemen ; but that upon our acknowledg-
ing ourselves to be British svibjects, he had power to consult
with us ; that the act of parliament had given power to the
king, upon certain conditions, of declaring the colonies to be at
peace ; and his commission gave him power to confer ^ advise,
444 CORRESPONDENCE.
and consult with any number or description of persons concern-
ing the complaints of the people in America ; that the king and
ministry had very good dispositions to redress the grievances of
the people, and reform the errors of administration in America;
that his commission gave him power to converse with any per-
sons whatever in America concerning the former instructions to
governors, and the acts of parliament complained of; that the
king and ministry were very willing to have all these revised
and reconsidered, and if any errors had crept in, if they could
be pointed out, were very willing that they should be rectified,
Mr. Rutledge mentioned to his Lordship what General Sulli-
van had said, that his Lordship told him he would set the acts
of parliament wholly aside, and that parliament had no right
to tax America, or meddle with her internal polity. His Lord-
ship answered Mr. Rutledge that General Sullivan had mis-
understood him, and extended his words much beyond their
import.
His Lordship gave us a long account of his negotiations in
order to obtain powers sufficiently ample for his purpose. He
said he told them (the nriinistry, 1 suppose he meant) that those
persons whom you call rebels, are the most proper to confer
with of any, because they are the persons who complain of
grievances. The others, those who are not in arms, and are
not, according to your ideas, in rebellion, have no complaints or
grievances ; they are satisfied, and therefore it would be to no
purpose to converse with them. To that his Lordship said, he
would not accept the command or commission until he had full
power to confer with any persons whom he should think proper,
who had the most abilities and influence. But, having obtained
these powers, he intended to have gone directly to Philadelphia,
not to have treated with Congress as such, or to have acknow-
ledged that body, but to have consulted with gentlemen of that
body in their private capacities vipon the subjects in his com-
mission.
His Lordship did not incline to give us any further account
of his powers, or to make any other propositions to us, in one
capacity or another, than those which are contained in substance
in the foregoing lines.
I have the pleasure to assure you, that there was no disagree-
ment in opinion among the members of the committee upon
CORRESPONDENCE. 445
any one point. They were perfectly united in sentiment and in
language, as they are in the result of the whole, which is, that
his Lordship's powers are fully expressed in the late act of par-
liament, and that his commission contains no other authority
than that of granting pardons, with such exceptions as the
commissioners shall think proper to make, and of declaring
America, or any part of it, to be at peace, upon submission,
and of inquiring into the state of America of any persons with
whom they might think proper to confer, advise, converse, and
consult, even although they should be officers of the army or
members of Congress, and then representing the result of their
inquiries to the ministry, who, after all, might or might not, at
their pleasure, make any alterations in the former instructions
to governors, or propose, in parliament, any alterations in the
acts complained of.
The whole affair of the commission appears to me, as it ever
did, to be a bubble, an ambuscade, a mere insidious manoeuvre,
calculated only to decoy and deceive, and it is so gross, that
they must have a wretched opinion of our generalship to sup-
pose that we can fall into it.
The committee assured his Lordship, that they had no author-
ity to wait upon him, or to treat or converse with him, in any
other character but that of a committee of Congress, and as
members of independent States ; that the vote which was
their commission, clearly ascertained their character; that the
declaration which had been made of independence, was the
result of long and cool deliberation ; that it was made by
Congress, after long and great reluctance, in obedience to
the positive insti'uctions of their constituents, every Assem-
bly upon the continent having instructed their delegates to
this purpose, and since the declaration has been made and
published, it has been solemnly ratified and confirmed by the
Assemblies, so that neither this committee nor that Con-
gress which sent it here, have authority to treat in any other
character than as independent States. One of the committee.
Dr. Franklin, assured his Lordship that, in his private opinion,
America would not again come under the domination of Great
Britain, and therefore that it was the duty of every good man,
on both sides of the water, to promote peace, and an acknowledg-
ment of American independency, and a treaty of friendship and
vol.. IX. '^^
446 CORRESPONDENCE.
alliance between the two countries. Another of the committee,
Mr. J. A., assured his Lordship, that, in his private opinion,
America would never treat in any other character than as inde-
pendent States. The other member, Mr. Rutledge, concurred
in the same opinion. His Lordship said he had no powers nor
instructions upon that subject ; it was entirely new. Mr. Rut-
ledge observed to his Lordship that most of the colonies had
submitted for two years to live without governments, and to all
the inconveniences of anarchy, in hopes of reconciliation ; but
now they had instituted governments. Mr. J. A. observed that
all the colonies had gone completely through a revolution ; that
they had taken all authority from the officers of the Crown, and
had appointed officers of their own, which his Lordship might
easily conceive had cost great struggles, and that they could
not easily go back; and that Americans had too much under-
standing not to know that, after such a declaration as they had
made, the government of Great Britain never would have any
confidence in them, or could govern them again but by force of
arms.
SAMUEL ADAMS TO JOHN ADAMS.
Boston, 30 September, 1776.
I am much obliged to you for your two letters of the 8th and
14th of this month, which I received together by the last post.
The caution given in the first of these letters was well designed,
and had it come to me as early as you had reason to expect it
would, I should have been relieved of a full fortnight's anxiety
of mind. I was indeed gi'catly "concerned" for the event of
the proposed conference with Lord Howe. It is no compli-
ment when I tell you that I fully confided in the understanding
and the integrity of the gentlemen appointed by Congress ; but,
being totally ignorant of the motives which induced such a
measure, I was fearful lest we might be brought into a situation
of great delicacy and embarrassment. I perceive that his Lord-
ship would not converse with you as members of Congress or
a committee of that body, from whence I concluded that the
conference did not take its rise on his part. As I am unac-
CORRESPONDENCE. 447
quainted with its origination and the powers of the committee,
I must contemplate the whole affair as a refinement in policy
beyond my reach, and content myself with remaining in the
dark till I have the pleasure of seeing you, when I trust the
mystery will be fully explained to me. Indeed, I am not so
solicitous to know the motives from whence this conference
sprang, or the manner in which it was brought up, as I am
pleased with its conclusion. The sentiments and language of
the committee, as they are related to me, were becoming the
character they bore. They managed with great dexterity. They
maintained the dignity of Congress, and, in my opinion, the
independence of America stands now on a better footing than
it did before. It affords me abundant satisfaction that the
minister of the British King, commissioned to require, and
fondly nourishing the hopes of receiving, the submission of
America, was explicitly and authoritatively assured that neither
the committee nor that Congress which sent them, had author-
ity to treat in any other capacity than as independent States.
His Lordship, it seems, " has no instruction on that subject."
We must, therefore, fight it ought, and trust in God for success.
I dare assure myself, that the most effectual care has before this
time been taken for the continuance and support of our armies,
not only for the remainder of the present, but for a future year.
The people will cheerfully support their independence to the
utmost. Their spirits will rise upon their knowing the result
of the late conference. It has, you may depend upon it, been
a matter of great expectation. Would it not be attended with
a good effect, if an account of it was published by authority of
Congress ? It would, I should think, at least put it out of the
power of disaffected men (and there are some of this character
even here) to amuse their honest neighbors with vain hopes of
reconciliation.
I wish that Congress would give the earliest notice to this
State of what may be further expected to be done here for the
support of the army. The season is advancing, or rather pass-
ing, fast.
I intended, when I sat down, to have written you a long
epistle, but I am interrupted. I have a thousand avocations
which require my attention. Many of them are too trifling to
merit your notice. Adieu, my friend, I hope to see you soon.
S. A.
448 CORRESPONDENCE.
SAMUEL ADAMS TO JOHN ADAMS.
Baltimore, 9 January, 1777,
I have every day for a month past been anxiously expecting
the pleasure of seeing you here, but now begin to suspect you
do not intend to give us your assistance in person. I shall
therefore do all that lies in my power to engage your epistolary
aid. You will by every opportunity receive my letters, and, I
dare say, you will be so civil as to answer at least some of
them.
I have given our friend Warren, in one of my letters to him,
the best reason I could for the sudden removal of Congress to
this place. Possibly he may have communicated it to you. I
confess it was not agreeable to my mind ; but I have since
altered my opinion, because we have done more important
business in three weeks than we had done, and I believe should
have done, at Philadelphia, in six months. As you are a mem-
ber of Congress, you have a right to know all that has been
done; but I dare not commit it to paper at a time when the
safe carriage of letters is become so precarious. One thing
I am very solicitous to inform you, because I know it will
give you great satisfaction. If you recollect our conversation
at New Haven, I fancy you will understand me when I tell
you, that to one place we have added four, and increased the
number of persons from three to six.i I hate this dark, myste-
rious manner of writing, but necessity requires it.
You have heard of the captivity of General Lee. Congress
have directed General Washington to offer six Hessian field-
officers in exchange for him. It is suspected that the enemy
choose to consider him as a deserter, bring him to trial in a
court-martial, and take his life. Assurances are ordered to be
given to General Howe, that five of those officers, together with
Lieutenant- Colonel Campbell, will be detained, and all of them
receive the same measure that shall be meted to him. This
resolution will most certainly be executed.
1 This probably refers to the resolve passed on the 30th December, directing
commissioners to be sent to Vienna, Spain, Prussia, and Tuscany, in addition to
France. By the selection of Arthur Lee to go to Spain, two new persons only
"were added, Messrs. Izard and William T>ee.
CORRESPONDENCE. 449
We have this day passed a recommendation to the Council
of Massachusetts Bay of a very important nature.^ It will be
sent by this express to the Council, to whom I refer you for a
perusal of it.
Our affairs in France and Spain wear a promising aspect,
and we have taken measures to put them on a respectable
footing in other parts of Europe; and I flatter myself too much
if we do not succeed.
The progress of the enemy through the Jerseys has chagrined
me beyond measure ; but I think we shall reap the advantage
in the end. We have already beat a part of their army at
Trenton, and the inclosed paper will give you a farther account
which we credit, though not yet authenticated. The late be-
havior of the people of Jersey \vas owing to some of their
leading men, who, instead of directing and animating, most
shamefully deserted them. When they found a leader in the
brave Colonel Ford, they followed him with alacrity. They
have been treated with savage barl)arity by the Hessians, but I
believe more so by Britons. After they have been most in-
humanly used in their persons, without regard to sex or age,
and plundered of all they had, without the least compensation.
Lord Howe and his brother (now Sir William, knight of the
Bath) have condescended to offer them protections for the free
enjoyment of their effects.
You have seen the power with which General Washington
is vested for a limited time. Congress is very attentive to the
northern army, and care is taken effectually to supply it with
every thing necessary this winter for the next campaign. Ge-
neral Gates is here. How shall we make him the head of that
army?
We are about establishing boards of war, ordnance, navy,
and treasury, with a chamber of commerce, each of them to
consist of gentlemen who are not members of Congress. By
these means, I hope, our business will be done more systema-
tically, speedily, and effectually.
Great and heavy complaints have been made of abuse in the
Director-General's department in both our armies ; some, I
suppose, without grounds, others with too much reason. I have
1 Recommending an attack upon Nova Scotia. See the Secret Journals,
vol. ii. p. 51.
38* no
450 CORRESPONDENCE.
no doubt but as soon as a committee reports, which is expected
this day, both Morgan and Stringer will be removed, as I think
they ought.
To the eighty-eight battalions ordered to be raised, sixteen
are to be added, which, with six to be raised out of the conti-
nent at large, will make one hundred and ten, besides three
thousand horse, three regiments of artillery, and a company of
engineers. We may expect fifty or sixty thousand of the enemy
in June next. Their design will still be to subdue the obstinate
States of New England. It was the intention that Carleton
should winter in Albany, Howe in New York, and Clinton at
Rhode Island, that, with reenforcements in the spring, they
might be ready to attack New England on all sides. I hope
every possible method will be used to quicken the new levies,
and that the fortifications in the harbor of Boston will be in
complete readiness. Much will depend upon our diligence this
winter.
The attention of Congress is also turned to the southward.
Forts Pitt and Randolph are to be garrisoned, and provisions
laid up for two thousand men, six months. By the last accounts
from South Carolina, we are informed that late arrivals have
supplied them with every thing necessary for their defence.
I have written in great haste, and have time only to add,
that I am, with sincere regards to your lady and family, very
cordially your friend,
Samuel Adams.
P. S. Dr. Morgan and Dr. Stringer are dismissed without
any reason assigned, which Congress could of right do, as they
held their places during pleasure. The true reason, as I take it,
was the general disgust, and the danger of the loss of an army
arising therefrom.
TO JAMES WARREN.
Baltimore, 3 February, 1777.
It may not be a misspense of time to make a few observa-
tions upon the situation of some of the States at this time.
CORRESPONDENCE. 451
That part of New York, which is yet in our possession, is
pretty well united and pretty firm. The Jerseys have recovered
from their surprise, and are lending as much assistance as can
well be expected from them. Their Assembly is now sitting,
and is said to be well disposed to do what it can. The As-
sembly of Pennsylvania is also sitting. They have abolished
the oath ^ which gave so much discontent to the people, and are
gradually acquiring the confidence of the people, and opposition
has subsided. The Delaware government have formed their
Constitution, and the Assembly is now sitting. Maryland has
formed its Constitution, and their Assembly, now sitting in
consequence of it, is filling it up. There is a difficulty in two
of the counties, but this will last but a little while. In Vir-
ginia, Governor Henry has recovered his health, has returned to
Williamsburg, and is proceeding in his government with great
industry. North Carolina have completed their government,
and Mr. Caswell is Governor. In Virginia and North Carolina
they have made an effort for the destruction of bigotry, which is
very remarkable. They have abolished their establishments of
Episcopacy so far as to give complete liberty of conscience to
dissenters, an acquisition in favor of the rights of mankind,
which is worth all the blood and treasure which has been or
will be spent in this war. South Carolina and Georgia com-
pleted their government a long time ago. Thus I think there
are but three States remaining which have not erected their
governments, Massachusetts, New York, and New Hampshire.
These are good steps towards government in the State, which
must be introduced and established before we can expect dis-
cipline in our armies, the unum necessariiun to our salvation. I
will be instant and incessant, in season and out of season, in
inculcating these important truths, that nothing can save us
but government in the State and discipline in the army. There
are so many persons among my worthy constituents, who love
liberty better than they understand it, that I expect to become
unpopular by my preaching. But woe is me, if I preach it not.
Woe will be to them if they do not hear.
P. S. I am terrified with the prospect of expense to our
State, which I find no possibility of avoiding. I cannot get a
1 To maintain the Constitution. See Reed's Life of Reed, vol. ii. p. ID, note.
452 CORRESPONDENCE.
horse kept in this town under a guinea a week. One hundred
and four guineas a year for the keeping of two horses is intole-
rable, but cannot be avoided. Simple board is fifty shillings a
week here, and seven dollars generally. I cannot get boarded
■iinder forty shillings, i. e. five dollars and a third, a week, and
fifteen for my servant, besides finding for myself all my wood,
candles, liquors, and washing. I would send home my servant
and horses, but Congress is now a movable body, and it is
impossible to travel and carry gi-eat loads of baggage without a
servant and horses, besides the meanness of it in the eyes of the
world.
TO JAMES WARREN.
Baltimore, 12 February, 1777.
Dear Sir, — The certificates and check-books for the loan-
office I hope and presume are arrived in Boston before this
time, and, notwithstanding the discouraging accounts which
were given me when I was there, I still hope that a considerable
sum of money will be obtained by their means.
It is my private opinion, however, that the interest of four
per cent, is not an equitable allowance. I mean that four per
cent, is not so much as the use of the money is honestly worth
in the ordinary course of business, upon an average for a year;
and I have accordingly exerted all the little faculties I had, in
endeavoring, on Monday last, to raise the interest to six per
cent. But after two days' debate, the question was lost by an
equal division of the States present, five against five. New
Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and
Virginia on one side, and Ehode Island, Connecticut, North
Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, on the other. Here was
an example of the inconvenience and injustice of voting* by
States. Nine gentlemen, representing about eight hundred
thousand people, against eighteen gentlemen, representing a
million and a half nearly, determined this point. Yet we must
not be startled at this.
I think it my duty to mention this to you, because it must be
astonishing to most people in our State, that the interest is so
CORRESPONDENCE. 453
low. I know they are at a loss to account for it upon any
principles of equity or policy, and consequently may be disposed
to blame their delegates ; but you may depend upon it, they are
not in fault.
I tremble for the consequences of this determination. If the
loan officers should not procure us money, we must emit more,
which will depreciate all which is already abroad, and so raise
the prices of provisions and all the necessaries of life, that the
additional expense to the continent for supplying their army
and navy will be vastly more than the two per cent, in dispute,
besides all the injustice, chicanery, extortion, oppression, and
discontent, which is always occasioned everywhere by a depre-
ciating medium of trade. I am much afraid of another mis-
chief. I fear that for want of wisdom to raise the interest in
season, we shall be necessitated, within a few months, to give
eight or ten per cent., and not obtain the money we want after
all.
I have been so often a witness of the miseries of this after-
wisdom, that I am wearied to death of it.
Had a bounty of twenty dollars a man been offered soldiers
last June, it would have procured more than the enormous
bounties that are now offered will procure. Had government
been assumed in the States twelve months sooner than it was,
it might have been assumed with spirit, vigor, and decision, and
would have obtained an habitual authority before the critical
time came on, when the strongest nerves of government are
necessary ; whereas now, every new government is as feeble as
water, and as brittle as glass.
Had we agreed upon a non-exportation, to commence when
the non-importation commenced, what an immense sum should
we have saved! Nay, very probably we should have occa-
sioned a very different House of Commons to be chosen, the
ministry to have been changed, and this war avoided. Thus it
is. • You, who will make no ill use of these observations, may
read them, but the times are too delicate and critical to indulge
freely and generally in such speculations. It is best, I believe,
that no mention should be made that the rate of interest has
been again debated, lest some saving men should withhold
their money in hopes of compelling the public to raise the
interest. If the interest should never be raised, those who lend
454 CORllESPONDENCE.
in our State will fare as well as others ; if it should, the interest
of all will be raised, that which is borrowed now as well as that
which shall be borrowed hereafter. I sincerely wish that our
people would lend their money freely. They will repent of it
if they do not. We shall be compelled to emit such quantities,
that every man, except a few villains, will lose more by depre-
ciation than the two per cent. Not to mention again the scene
of anarchy and horror, that a continuation of emissions will
infallibly bring upon us.
The design of loan-offices was to prevent the farther depre-
ciation of the bills by avoiding farther emissions. We might
have emitted more bills promising an interest, but if those had
been made a legal tender like the other bills, and, consequently
mixed in the circulation with them, they would instantly have
depreciated all the other bills four per cent, if the interest was
four, and more than that, too, by increasing the quantity of
circulating cash. In order to prevent these certificates from
circulation, and consequently from depreciating the bills, we
should sive them such attributes as will induce men of fortune
and others who usually lend money, to hoard them up. The
persons who usually lend money are, 1. Men of fortune, who
live upon their income, and these generally choose to have a
surplusage to lay up every year to increase their capitals.
2. Opulent merchants who have more money than they choose
to risk, or can conveniently employ in trade. 3. Widows,
whose dower is often converted into money and placed out at
interest, that they may receive an annual income to live upon,
without the care and skill which is necessary to employ money
advantageously^in business. 4. Orphans, whose guardians
seldom incline to hazard the property of their wards in business.
0. A few divines, lawyers, and physicians, who are able to lay
by a little of their annual earnings. 6. Here and there a far-
mer and a tradesman, who is forehanded and frugal enough to
make more money than he has occasion to spend. Add to
these, — 7. Schools, colleges, towns, parishes, and other socie-
ties, which sometimes let money. All these persons are much
attached to their interest, and so anxious to make the most of
it. that they compute and calcvilate it even to farthings and
single days. These persons can get six per cent., generally, of
private borrowers, on good security of mortgages or sureties.
CORRESPONDENCE. 455
Now, is it reasonable in the State to expect that monied men
will lend to the public at a less interest than they can get from
private persons ?
I answer, yes, when the safety of the State is not in doubt,
and when the medium of exchange has a stable value, because
larger sums may be put together, and there is less trouble in
collecting and receiving the interest, and the security is better.
But the case is otherwise, when men are doubtful of the
existence of the State, and it is worse still, when men see a
prospect of depreciation in the medium of trade. All govern-
ments in distress are obliged to give a higher interest for money
than when they are prosperous.
The interest of money always bears some proportion to the
profits of trade. When the commerce of a country is small,
lodged in few hands, and very profitable, the interest of money
is very high. Charles the Fifth was necessitated to give twenty-
four per cent, for money ; afterwards it fell in Europe to twelve,
and since to six, five, four, and three.
I think I shall never consent to go higher than six per cent,
as much as I am an advocate for raising it to that, and in this
I have been constant for full nine months. The burden of six
per cent, upon the community will very soon be heavy enough.
We must fall upon some other methods of ascertaining the
capitals we borrow. A depreciating currency we must not
have, it will ruin us. The medium of trade ought to be as
unchangeable as truth, as immutable as morality. The least
variation in its value does injustice to multitudes, and in pro-
portion it injures the morals of the people, a point of the last
importance in a republican government.
15 March, 1777.
Thus far I had written a long time ago, since which, after
many days deliberation and debate, a vote passed for raising
the interest to six per cent. If this measure should not procure
us money, 1 know not what resource we shall explore.
To read this will be punishment enough for your omission to
write to me all this while. I have received nothing from you
since I left Boston.
456 CORRESPONDENCE.
TO JAMES WARREN.
Philadelphia, 18 March, 1777.
I had this morning the pleasure of your favor of February
22d, by the post. This is the first letter from you since I left
you.
You are anxious to know what expectations are to be enter-
tained of foreign aid. I wish, Sir, it was in my power to com-
municate to you the little that I know of this matter ; but I
am under such injunctions and engagements, to communicate
nothing relative to foreign affairs, that I ought not to do it; and,
if I was at liberty, such is the risk of letters by the post or any
other conveyance, that it would be imprudent.
Thus much I may say, that we have letters from Dr. Frank-
lin and Mr. Deane ; both agree that every thing is as they could
wish ; but the Doctor had but just arrived, and had not been to
Paris, and, therefore, could know nothing of the Cabinet. The
noted Dr. Williamson is arrived, full of encouraging matter ;
but what confidence is to be put in him, or what dependence is
* to be had in his intelligence, I know not. Franklin, Deane,
and Williamson all agree in opinion that a war will take place.
The reception that is given to our privateers and merchantmen
in every part of the French dominions, is decisively encourag-
ing. Wickes, who carried the Doctor, took two prizes. Per-
sons enough offered to purchase them without condemnation or
trial, and to run the risk of the illegality of it ; perhaps they
may be ransomed. Thus much you may depend on, that you
may have any thing that France affords in the way of manu-
factures, merchandise, or warlike stores, for sending for it. I
can go no further as yet. Congress have done as much as they
ought to do, and more than I thought they ought to have done,
before they did it. I will hazard a prophecy for once, and it is
this, that there will as certainly be a general war in Europe, as
there will be a kingdom of France or Spain. How soon it will
be, I will not precisely determine ; but I have no more doubt
that it will be within a year to come than I have that it will be
at all.
CORRESPONDENCE. 457
TO JOHN AVERY, JUNIOR.
Philadelphia, 21 March, 1777.
Sir, — I had this morning the pleasure of your favor of the
7th instant, and am glad to learn that my letter to you of the
10th of February was conveyed safely to your hand, and am
obliged to you for communicating the resignation inclosed in it
to the honorable Board. ^
It would give me a great deal of uneasiness, if the honorable
Board should not proceed Ibrthwith to fill up the vacancy, if I
thought, as you seem to suggest, that they would postpone it
until they should see me ; because the public must suffer in the
mean time, and the vacancy must be filled up, after all, with
some other gentleman. The resignation, you saw, was the
result of long and anxious deliberation, was founded in reasons
that will not alter, and, therefore, there will be no change in my
determination. The difficulty you insinuate of finding a proper
person, is merely imaginary. There is not a more suitable
person in the State, nor belonging to it, than the very worthy
gentleman who now presides in that court; and other gentle-
men enough may be found to fill the place which will be left
open by the removal of him and his honorable brothers, much
more suitable to sit in that seat than 1 am.
The hope you give me, that our quota will be ready in a
few weeks, rejoices me much. We want nothing but an army,
new in the field, to answer our purpose. I had this morning
the pleasm-e of a conversation with Major-General Mifflin, who
assures me that he has tents of the very best quality completely
ready for an army of twenty thousand men to take the field,
and that, in three weeks, he shall have enough completed for
ten thousand more; that he has intrenching tools enough com-
pleted for the whole army the whole campaign; that he has
camp-kettles and canteens enough, and that he has horses,
wagons, and magazines of forage ready. So that this depart-
ment, which was last year in so much disorder, which occa-
sioned us such losses of men, baggage, and stores, is now in a
good arrangement, and promises more comfort to the army.
1 Of the place of Chief Justice. Vol. iii. p. 25, note.
VOL. IX. 39
458 CORRESPONDENCE.
We are making every regulation in our power in the medical
department, and a fine cargo of drugs has arrived, in addition to
a large quantity before purchased by Dr. Shippen. So that we
comfort ourselves with hopes that the health of the men will be
better provided for than last year. In the commissary's de-
partment, I am informed that large quantities of meat have
been salted down, that the men may not be obliged to live
altogether upon fresh beef, as they did the last summer, in the
extremest heat of the weather, which was thought to be pre-
judicial to their health.
We are doing every thing in our power for the discipline and
the comfort of the army. Nothing in this contest has ever
given me so much pain as the sufferings of the soldiers in sick-
ness and for want of discipline, to which, indeed, that sickness
was in a great measure owing.
You had good reasons for your expectations that we should
have a hard struggle with Great Britain. Whoever has attended
to the policy of the British court, and studied the characters
which composed it, from the year 1761, must have seen abund-
ant evidence of a fixed design to subjugate America to the
complete domination of parliament ; must have observed how
systematically they have proceeded with all their art and all
their force to accomplish this detestable purpose. Whoever
was acquainted with the national history, must have been con-
vinced how completely their government was corrupted, and
the persons concerned in it lost to all the ties of honor, virtue,
and religion; — ties which once restrained that nation ; ties which
alone can restrain any people from robbing and plundering all
whom they think in their power. Whoever was acquainted
with America, knew how unprepared she was ; how inexpe-
rienced as statesmen and warriors ; how unprovided with war-
like stores ; how defenceless in fortified places ; and, what is
infinitely worse than all the rest, how much infected with that
selfishness, corruption, and venality (so unfriendly to the new
governments she must assume), which have been the bane of
Great Britain. Every such person, therefore, must have ex-
pected a hard struggle. Hard as it is, however, it will succeed.
May Heaven direct us, and conduct us safely in due time to
liberty, to virtue, and, of course, to glory I
CORRESPONDENCE. 459
TO WILLIAM TUDOR.
Philadelphia, 22 March, 1777.
Yours of the 16th I got yesterday. If Howe imagines that
one fourth of Pennsylvania are Quakers, he is mistaken one
half; for, upon the most exact inquiry, I find there is not more
than one in eight of that denomination. If he imagines that
ninety-nine in one hundred of those are his friends, he is mis-
taken again, for I believe in my conscience that a majority of
them are friends to nobody but themselves ; and Howe will
find them full as great an encumbrance and embarrassment to
him as we have found them to us.
The acquisition of Philadelphia w^ould give Howe a tempo-
rary eclat, it is true, in Europe and America, but it would in
the end prove his destruction.
Beware of those who make so free with the epithets of " sor-
did," "selfish," " ungenerous," and " ungrateful," &c. Let them
look at home. The other colonies, it is true, contributed to
support the poor of Boston. But for whose good did Boston
resign her whole trade? For the good of all the others, as well
as her own. And did not all the others go on with their trade to
their vast profit, while Boston lost it all ? If Boston had not,
with a magnanimity and generosity hitherto without example
or parallel in America, resigned its trade, and nobly stood the
shock, Boston would have been the undisputed mistress among
the slaves of America, and have drawn the wealth of the conti-
nent to herself, and so she would now, if the States should
submit ; because there is no other place that the crown officers
of all denominations will resort to in such numbers. There
would be the most numerous army, there the most powerful
fleet, and there the whole board of excise, customs, duties, and
revenues. For whose interest did Boston continue without
trade and without government, and submit to a trifling force
within herself? I remember a petition from Boston to Congress
for leave to cut Gage and his troops to pieces, which was abso-
lutely refused. To whom was it owing that all the rest of the
continent besides Boston continued their exports nine months
after all imports were stopped? Whereby millions were lost to
the continent, whereto, in all probability, this whole war is
460 CORRESPONDENCE.
owing. I am not by this, however, justifying the policy of
Massachusetts in regulating the prices of goods, which laid
them under the necessity of prohibiting exportations. But
other States ought not to complain of this, because the conti-
nent is procuring supplies from New England at one third of
the price which they give for the same articles in other States.
But they found they could not regulate the prices of things
without prohibiting exportation, because other States, or per-
sons belonging to them, were about purchasing every thing at
the stated prices, and then exporting them at an immense
profit.
As to the Massachusetts getting money, it is all a joke. They
have lost their staple in this quai-rel, which no other State has
done. The fishery, I mean, which has destroyed their trade.
Indigo, rice, tobacco, wheat, iron, the staples of other States,
are not affected by this war like the fishery, the mast-trade,
and lumber, which were the trade of Massachusetts. The
privateers fitted out in that State belong to Congress, and to
persons belonging to other States, I suppose near one half
of them ; and, besides, the continent could not carry on the
war without the Massachusetts. Their seamen have supplied
the army with every thing almost. Where, then, is the ingra-
titude ? Do not be concerned about the Union. These peevish-
nesses 1 have been a witness to a long time. It is envy at
bottom. They see the superiority of the Massachusetts to
every one of them, in every point of view, and it frets them ;
but it will fret away.
Farther, for whose good has the Massachusetts sacrificed
their trade, and privateers too, by their embargo ? A restraint
that others have not been pleased to subject themselves to,
although it is more wanted both for manning the army and
navy in them than it was in her. I hate disputes of this sort,
and I never begin them; but when Massachusetts is attacked, I
never have and never will fail to defend her, as far as truth and
justice will warrant me, and no farther. There is a narrow
spirit in many people, which seems to consider this contest as
the affair of Boston and the Massachusetts, not the affair of the
continent. All that they have to do is to get the character of
heroes by their bravery, to wear genteel uniforms and armor,
and to be thought to lay Boston and Massachusetts under vast
CORRESPONDENCE. 461
obligations. For iny own part, I think the obligations mutual ;
but if there is a balance, it is clearly in favor of Massachusetts.
I ever disdained, in Congress, in the most decisive terms, all
obligations to any State or person, and I ever shall. The cause
must be supported as a common cause, or it must fall. I will
never solicit charity or favor as a politician, much less acknow-
ledge obligations to others, who are under the strongest of all.
Are there not persons who insinuate themselves into your army
with a design to foment prejudices, excite jealousies, and raise
clamors?
TO WILLIAM GORDON.
Philacleli^hia, 8 April, 1777.
I had your favor of 27th March by this day's post. That this
country will go safely through this revolution, I am well con-
vinced ; but we have severe conflicts to endure yet, and, I hope,
shall be prepared for them. Indeed, there is one enemy, who
to me is more formidable than famine, pestilence, and the sword;
I mean the corruption which is prevalent in so many American
hearts, a depravity that is more inconsistent with our republican
governments than light is with darkness. If we can once give
energy enough to our governments, and discipline enough to our
armies, to overcome this base principle of selfishness, to make
citizens and soldiers feel themselves the children of the common-
wealth, and love and revere their mother so much as to make
their happiness consist in her service, I shall think we have a
prospect of triumph indeed.
Your design, Sir, of collecting materials for a history of the
rise, progress, and issue of the American Revolution, is liberal
and generous ; and, as you will find it a laborious undertaking,
you ought to be encouraged and assisted in it. I should be
very willing to contribute any thing towards so useful a work.
But, I must frankly tell you, there is very little in my power.
So far from making collections myself, I have very often de-
stroyed the papers in my power, and my own minutes of events
and their causes. We are hurried away in such a kind of deli-
rium, arising from the multiplicity of affairs, and the disorder in
39*
462 CORRESPONDENCE.
which they rise in review before us, that I confess myself unable
even to recollect the circumstances of any transaction with suffi-
cient precision to assist an historian. There are materials,
however, in possession of the Secretary of State, and others in the
War-Office, which will be preserved. The Massachusetts Bay,
however, was the first theatre, and your history should begin at
least from the year 1761. Your correspondent, whoever he is, has
a talent at panegyric, enough to turn a head that has much less
vanity in it than mine. Sometimes, however, the extravagance
of flattery is an antidote to its poison. I shall not, however, be
made to tremble to think of the expectations that will be formed
from me by such wild praises. No such attributes belong to
me ; and I aiu under no concern about answering to what may
be justly expected of me. Alas I who is equal to these things ?
TO JAMES WARREN.
Philadelphia, 27 April, 1777.
Yours of April 3d I received, I must confess that I am at a
loss to determine whether it is good policy in us to wish for
a war between France and Britain, unless we could be sure
that no other powers would engage in it. But if France en-
gages, Spain will, and then all Europe will arrange themselves
on one side and the other, and what consequences to us might
be involved in it, I do not know. If we could have a free trade
with Europe, I should rather run the risk of fighting it out with
George and his present allies, provided he should get no other.
I do not love to be entangled in the quarrels of Europe ; I do
not wish to be under obligations to any of them, and I am very
unwilling they should rob us of the glory of vindicating our own
liberties.
It is a cowardly spirit in our countrymen, which makes
them pant with so much longing expectation after a French
war. I have very often been ashamed to hear so many whigs
groaning and sighing with despondency, and whining out their
fears that we must be subdued, unless France should step in.
Are we to be beholden to France for our liberties? France
CORRESPONDENCE. 463
has done so much ah'eady that the honor and dignity and
reputation of Great Britain are concerned to resent it ; and if
she does not, France will trifle with her forever hereafter. She
has received our ambassadors, protected our merchantmen,
privateers, men-of-war, and prizes, admitted us freely to trade,
lent us money, and supplied us with arms, ammunition, and
warlike stores of every kind. This is notorious all over Europe.
And she will do more, presently, if our dastardly despondency,
in the midst of the finest prospects imaginable, does not dis-
courage her. The surest and the only way to secure her arms
in this cause, is for us to exert our own. For God's sake, then,
do not fail of a single man of your quota. Get them at any
rate, and by any means, rather than not have them.
I am more concerned about our revenue than the aid of
France. Pray let the loan offices do their part, that we may
not be compelled to make paper money as plenty, and, of course,
as cheap as oak leaves. There is so much injustice in carrying
on a war with a depreciating currency that we can hardly pray
with confidence for success.
The confederation has been delayed, because the States were
not fully represented. Congress is now full, and we are in the
midst of it. It will soon be passed.
God prosper your new Constitution. But I am afraid you
will meet the disapprobation of your constituents. It is a pity
you should be obliged to lay it before them. It will divide and
distract them. However, their will be done. If they suit
themselves, they will please me.
TO JAMES WARREN.
Philadelpliia, 29 April, 1777.
I have but a few moments to write, and those it is my duty
to improve, and faithfully to tell you, that unless you exert
yourselves and send forward your troops, it is my firm opinion
that Howe will recruit his army as fast as Washington, and
that from Americans. The people of New York and New Jer-
sey have been so scandalously neglected this winter, that they
464 CORRESPONDENCE.
are flying over to Howe in considerable numbers. Nay, our
army under Washington is so dispirited by conscious weakness,
that the spirit of desertion prevails among them, and there are
more go over to Howe from our army than come from his to
ours, two to one.
Every man of the Massachusetts quota ought to have been
ready last December. And not one man has yet arrived in the
field, and not three hundred men at Ticonderoga. It is our
weakness, and want of power to protect the people, that makes
tories and deserters. I have been abominably deceived about
the troops. If Ticonderoga is not lost, it will be because it is
not attacked ; and if it should be. New England will bear all
the shame and all the blame of it. In plain English, I beg to
be supported or recalled. The torment of hearing eternally
reflections upon my constituents, that they are all dead, all
turned tories, that they are smallbeer, which froths and foams
for a few moments while it is new, and then flattens down to
worse than water, without being able to contradict or answer
them, is what I will not endure..
By a letter from A. Lee, 20th February, Burgoyne is coming
with ten thousand Germans and three thousand British to
Boston. They will go first to Rhode Island, I suppose. From
thence they will join Howe, or go to Boston, according to cir-
cumstances. If you make up a decent force under Washington
in the Jerseys, Howe must order them all to him, or he will be
demolished, for he has but a small force at present. If you
leave Washington weak, they will march to Boston.
TO JAMES WARREN.
Philadelphia, 6 May, 1777.
About ten days ago I had the boldness to make a motion that
a navy board should be established at Boston. Certain gen-
tlemen looked struck and surprised. However, it passed. I
have moved, I believe fifteen times, that a nomination should
take place. Certain gentlemen looked cold. Two or three
days ago, the nomination came on. Langdon, Vernon, Deshon,
CORRESPONDENCE. 465
Dalton, Orne, Henley, Smith, Gushing, and Warren, were
nominated. This day the choice came on. At last, Vernon,
Warren, and Deshon, were chosen. The board is to appoint
its own clerk, who is to have five hundred dollars a year.
I hope you will engage in this business and conduct it with
spirit. You cannot be Speaker, and do this duty too, I believe.
I think the town of Boston will be offended. But I could not
help it. This you will not mention. The salary for the com-
missioners is fifteen hundred dollars a year. You will have the
building and fitting of all ships, the appointment of officers, the
establishment of arsenals and magazines, which will take up
your whole time ; but it will be honorable to be so capitally
concerned in laying a foundation of a great navy. The profit
to you will be nothing; but the honor and the virtue the
greater. I almost envy you this employment. I am weary of
my own, and almost with my life. But I ought not to be weary
in endeavoring to do well.
THOMAS JEFFERSON TO JOHN ADAMS.
Williamsburgb, 16 May, 1777.
Matters in our part of the continent are too much in quiet to
send you news from hence. Our battalions for the continental
service were some time ago so far filled as rendered the recom-
mendation of a draught from the militia hardly requisite, and
the more so as in this country it ever was the most unpopular
and impracticable thing that could be attempted. Our people,
even under the monarchical government, had learnt to consider
it as the last of all oppressions. I learn from our delegates that
the confederation is again on the carpet, a great and a neces-
sary work, but I fear almost desperate. The point of represent-
ation is what most alarms me, as I fear the great and small
colonies are bitterly determined not to cede. Will you be so
good as to recollect the proposition I formerly made you in
private, and try if you can work it into some good to save our
union ? It was, that any proposition might be negatived by
the representatives of a majority of the people of America, or
D2
466 CORRESPONDENCE.
of a majority of the colonies of America. The former secm-es
the larger, the latter, the smaller colonies. I have mentioned it
to many here. The good whigs, I think, will so far cede their
opinions for the sak.e of the Union, and others we care little for.
The journals of Congress not being printed earlier, gives
more uneasiness than I would wish ever to see produced by
any act of that body, from whom alone I know our salvation
can proceed. In our Assembly, even the best affected think it
an indignity to freemen to be voted away, life and fortune, in
the dark. Our House have lately written for a manuscript
copy of your journals, not meaning to desire a communication
of any thing ordered to be kept secret. I wish the regulation
of the post-office, adopted by Congress last September, could
be put in practice. It was for the riders to travel night and
day, and to go their several stages three times a week. The
speedy and frequent communication of intelligence is really of
great consequence. So many falsehoods have been propagated
that nothing now is believed unless coming from Congress or
camp. Our people, merely for want of intelligence which they
may rely on, are become lethargic and insensible of the state
they are in. Had you ever a leisure moment, I should ask a
letter from you sometimes, directed to the care of Mr. Dick,
Fredericksburgh ; but having nothing to give in return, it would
be a tax on your charity as well as your time. The esteem I
have for you privately, as well as for your public importance,
will always render assurances of your health and happiness
agreeable. I am, dear Sir, your friend and servant,
Thomas Jefferson.
TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.
Philadclpliia, 26 May, 1777.
I had this morning the pleasure of your agreeable favor of
the 16th instant, by the post, and rejoice to learn that your
battalions were so far fdled as to render a draught from the
militia unnecessary. Draughts are dangerous measure^ and
only to be adopted in great extremities, even by a government
CORRESPONDENCE. 467
the most }5opular ; although in such governments draughts will,
perhaps, never be made but in such cases^ — cases in which
the people themselves see the necessity of it, which is widely-
different from draughts made by monarchs to carry on wars in
which the people can see no interest of their own, nor any other
object in view than the gratification of the avarice, ambition,
caprice, envy, revenge, or vanity of a single tyrant. Draughts
in the Massachusetts have not been unpopular, as they have
been managed ; for the persons draughted are commonly the
wealthiest people, who become obliged to give large premiums
to their poorer neighbors to take their places.
The great work of confederation drags heavily on ; but I do
not despair of it. The"great and small colonies must be brought
as near together as possible, and I am not without hopes that
this may be done to the tolerable satisfaction of both. Your
thought. Sir, that any proposition may be negatived by the
representatives of a majority of the people, or of a majority of
States, shall be attended to; and I will endeavor to get it
introduced, if we cannot succeed in our wishes for a representa-
tion and a rule of voting perfectly equitable, which has no equal
in my m.ind.
Nothing gives me more constant anxiety than the delays in
publishing the journals. Yet, I hope gentlemen will have a
little patience with us, "VVe have had a committee constantly
attending to this very thing for a long time. But we have too
many irons in the fire, you know, for twenty hands, which is
nearly the whole number we have had upon an average since
last fall. The committee are now busy every day in correcting
proof-sheets, so that I hope we shall soon do better./ A com-
mittee on the post-office, too, have found a thousand difficulties.
The post is now extremely regular from north and south, al-
though it comes but once a week. It is very difficult to get
faithful riders to go oftener. And the expense is very high, and
the profits, so dear is everjpthingv and so little correspondence
is carried on except in franked letters, will not support the office.
Mr. Hazard is now gone southward, in the character of sur-
veyor of the post-office, and I hope will have as good success
as he lately had, eastward, where ^he put the office into very
good order.
We have no news from the camp but that the General and
468 CORRESPONDENCE.
army are in fine spirits/ and begin to feel themselves powerful.
We are anxiously waiting for news from abroad, and for my
own part I am apprehensive of some insidious manoeuvre from
Great Britain to deceive us into disunion and then to destroy.
We want your industry and abilities here extremely. Fi-
nanciers we want more than soldiers. The worst enemy we
have now is poverty, real poverty in the shape of exuberant
wealth. Pray come and help us to raise the value of our money
and lower the prices of things. Without this we cannot carry
on the war; with it, we can make it a diversion.
No poor mortals were ever more perplexed than we have been
with three circumstances at once, any one of which, coming
alone, would have been sufficient to have distressed any people.
I mean a redundancy of the medium of exchange^ a diminution
of the quantity at market of the luxuries, the conveniences, and
even the necessaries of life^ and an increase of the demand for
all of them, occasioned by two large armies in the country.
I shall ever esteem it a happiness to hear of your welfare, my
dear Sir, and a much greater still to see you once more in Con-
gress. Your country is not yet quite secure enough to excuse
you for retreating to the delights of domestic life ; yet, for the
soul of me, when I attend to my own feelings, I cannot blame
you. .
B. FRANKLIN TO JAMES LOVELL.^
Passy, 17 October, 1777.
I received your letter (without date) communicating a method
of secret writing, for which I am obliged to you. I have since
received yours of July 4th.
I was very sensible before I left America, of the inconve-
niences attending the employment of foreign officers, and
therefore immediately on my arrival here I gave all the discou-
ragement in my power to their going over. But numbers had
been previously engaged by Mr. Deane, who could not resist
the applications made to him. I was concerned in sending the
1 This letter, found among the papers of Mr. Adams, has not, it is believed,
yet been published.
y'^-i^^
£:i>i/ ./<:
^-'^^
y^i^i^^^.^^^ . J^^yi^Cy
CORRESPONDENCE. 469
four engineers, and in making the contract with them ; but,
before they went, I had reason to dislike one of them, and to
wish the agreement had not been made, for I foresaw the dis-
content that man was capable of producing among his com-
panions, and I fancy that if, instead of America they had gone to
Heaven, it would have been the same thing. You can have no
conception of the arts and interest made use of to recommend,
and engage us to recommend, very indifferent persons. The
importunity is boundless. The numbers we refuse, incredible.
Which if you knew, you would applaud us for, and on that
account excuse the few we have been prevailed on to introduce
to you. But, as somebody says, —
" Poets lose half the praise they would have got
Were it but known what they discreetly blot."
I wish we had an absolute order to give no letter of recom-
mendation, or even introduction, for the future, to any foreign
officer whatever. As to the instruction passed in Congress,
respecting French officers who do not understand English, we
never made it known here, from the same apprehension that
you express. All that understood a little English would have
thought themselves entitled to a commission, and the rest would
have undertaken to learn it in the passage.
With great esteem, &c.
B. Franklin.
P. S. I inclose some papers, given me by the Baron Steuben,
a Prussian officer who is gone over. Perhaps there may be
useful hints in them.
TO ELBRIDGE GERRY.
Braintree, 6 December, 1777.
My dear Sir, — You must expect for the future to find in
me, situated as I am by a blissful fireside, surrounded by a wife
and a parcel of chattering boys and girls, only a dealer in small
politics.
I find the same perplexities here that we felt at Yorktown, a
general inclination among the people to barter, and as general
VOL. IX. -iO
470 CORRESPONDENCE.
an aversion to dealing in paper money of any denomination ;
guineas, half joes, and milled dollars in as high estimation as
in Pennsylvania. The monied men, I am informed, generally
decline receiving paper for their debts ; many refuse ; and it is
said all will, very soon. There is a whispering about among
the richer sort that an act is necessary for allowing a deprecia-
tion or an appreciation, as the case may be, upon specialties;
and the poorer sort look cunning, and give hints that the rich
are aiming at a depreciation.
I mention these facts, and leave you to draw your own infer-
ences. I know and feel the delicacy of the subject, and am
restrained by certain prudential considerations from writing my
own sentiments freely. Two things I will venture to say. One
is that I am sick of attempts to work impossibilities, and to
alter the course of nature. Another is. Fiat justitia, mat caelum.
The rapid translation of property from hand to hand, the rob-
bing of Peter to pay Paul, alarms and distresses me beyond
measure. The man who lent another a hundred pounds in
gold four years ago, and is paid now in paper, cannot purchase
with it one quarter part in pork, beef, or land, of what he could
when he lent the gold. This is fact, and facts are stubborn
things in opposition to speculation. You have the happiest,
nimblest spirit for climbing over difficulties, and for dispersing
mists and seeing fair weathei-, when it is foggy or rainy, of any
man I know. But this will be a serious perplexity even to
you, before it is over. I am not out of my wits about it. It
will not ruin our cause, great as the evil is, and if it Avas much
greater. But it torments me to see injustice both to the public
and to individuals so frequent. Every man's liberty and life are
equally dear to him ; every man, therefore, ought to be taxed
equally for the defence of his life and liberty. That is, the poll-
tax should be equal. Every man's property is equally dear both
to himself and to the public : every man's property ought to
be taxed for the defence of the public in proportion to the quan-
tity of it. These are fundamental maxims of sound policy.
But instead of this every man who had money due to him at
the commencement of this war, has been already taxed three
fourth parts of that money, besides his tax on his poll and
estate in proportion to other people. And every man who owed
money at the beginning of the war, has put three fourth parts
CORRESPONDENCE. 471
of it in his pocket as clear gain. The war, therefore, is im-
moderately gainful to some, and ruinous to others. This will
never do.
TO JAMES LOVELL.
Bralntree, 24 December, 1777.
I cannot omit this opportunity of acknowledging the receipt
of your kind favor of the 27th or 28th November, I say one or
the other of those days, because, although the letter has no date,
yet it says it was written on the day when a certain commis-
sion was voted me, and both the commissions are dated the
27th, although the copy of the resolution of Congress, by which
I was appointed, is dated the 28th.
I should have wanted no motives nor arguments to induce
me to accept of this momentous trust, if I could be sure that
the public would be benefited by it. But when I see my
brothers at the bar here so easily making fortunes for them-
selves and their families, and when I recollect that for four years
I have abandoned myself and mine, and when I see my own
children growing up in something very lilie real want, because
I have taken no care of them, it requires as much philosophy
as I am master of to determine to persevere in public life, and
to engage in a new scene, for which, I fear, I am very ill quali-
fied.
However, by the innuendoes in your letter, if I cannot do
much good in this new department, I may possibly do less harm
than some others. The want of a language for conversation
and business is, however, all the objection that lies with much
wxight upon my mind. Although I have been not ignorant of
the gi-ammar and construction of the French tongue from my
youth, yet I have never aimed at maintaining or even under-
standing conversation in it. And this talent, I suppose, I am
too old to acquire, in any degree of perfection. However, I
will try, and do my best. I will take books, and my whole time
shall be devoted to it. Let me entreat the benefit of your con-
stant correspondence.
472 CORRESPONDENCE.
TO BENJAMIN RUSH.
Braintree, 8 Februarj^, 1778.
Two days ago, I was favored with your polite and elegant
letter of January 22d. I have received so many of your letters,
within a few months, containing such important matters, in so
masterly a style, that I am ashamed to confess that I have
answered but one of them, and that only with a few lines. I
beg you would not impute this omission to inattention, negli-
gence, or want of regard, but to its true cause, a confusion of
business. I beg leave to assure you that I hold your corres-
pondence inestimable, and will do every thing in my power to
cultivate it.
Whether I shall be able to render any valuable service to our
country in my new capacity, or not, is to me very uncertain.
All I can say with confidence is, that whether in that or any
other, I will never knoAvingly do it any injury. In spite of all
the reflections that are cast upon human nature, and of all the
satires on mankind, and especially on courts, I have ever found,
or thought that I found, honesty to be the best policy. And
it is as great a truth now as it was three thousand years ago,
that the honest man is seldom forsaken.
Your sentiments, that we are but half taught in the great
national arts of government and war, are, I fear, too just. And
I fear that the subject, which is at present most essentially con-
nected with our government and warfare, I mean money, is least
understood of any, I fear the regulation of prices will produce
ruin sooner than safety. It will starve the army and the coun-
try, or I am ignorant of every principle of commerce, coin, and
society. Barter will be the only trade.
You are daily looking out for some great military character.
Have you found none ? Let me entreat you, my friend, to look
back on the course of this war, and especially through the last
campaign, and then tell me whether many countries of the
world have ever furnished more and greater examples of forti-
tude, valor, and skill, than our little States have produced. We
do not attend enough to our heroes, and we are too indulgent to
those of opposite characters. Barton, Meigs, Green, Smith,
Willet, Gansevoort, Herkimer, Stark, Arnold, Gates, and many,
CORRESPONDENCE. 473
many others, have exhibited to our view a series of actions,
which all the exertions and skill of oar enemies have never
equalled in the present contest. I do not mean by this to dero-
gate from the main army or its commander. Brandywine and
Germantown can witness both bravery and skill, though unfor-
tunate. The great fault of our officers is want of diligence and
patience; they do not want bravery or knowledge. Let them
learn to attend to their men, to their clothes, diet, air, exercise,
medicines, arms, accoutrements, &c. ; in short, let our officers
learn to keep their men in health, &c., and to keep them together
at their duty, not let twenty-five hundred men go to guard
baggage wagons through a country where there could be no
enemy, and I would answer for the bravery of our armies, for
their discipline and good dispositions. If I may venture to
prophesy, I think you will see in another campaign still greater
exertions of heroism and magnanimity. The idea that any one
man alone can save us, is too silly for any body but such weak
men as Duche to harbor for a moment.
T am very glad you have not laid down your commission,
and I conjure you, by all the ties of friendship to your country,
not to do it. Men who are sensible of the evils in the hospital
department, are the most likely to point them out to others, and
to suggest remedies. Patience, patience, patience! the first,
the last, and the middle virtue of a politician.
The lady you mention will not go abroad. A thousand rea-
sons are against it. It would be too much happiness for him
who is your sincere friend and servant.
TO JAMES LOVELL.
Passy, 27 November, 1778.
It is now a year since I left you, and I have heard very sel-
dom from you since that time. I have written as often as I
could, but so many vessels have been taken that I fear you have
heard as seldom from me.
There is no news anywhere, excepting the innumerable
reports circulated in every part of Europe by the emissaries of
40*
474 CORRESPONDENCE.
England, every one of which I know to be false. They still,
however, find stockjobbers and other persons to believe them.
These lies are calculated to make it believed, that there are
great dissensions between the French and Americans, and be-
tween the Americans with one another. No extravagance is
too great. Ten thousand of General Washington's army gone
over to Clinton. Count D'Estaing making a procession through
the streets of Boston with the Host, and seizing a meeting-house
for a chapel, and the d — knows what.
I suffer as much for want of intelligence from America, as we
used to suffer in Congress for want of it from Europe.
Mr. D. writes a gentleman here, that on the 14th of Septem-
ber Congress took up foreign affairs, and determined to have
but one commissioner here. If this is the case, I shall be at a
loss how to conduct myself, unless you recall me. Dr. F., no
doubt, will be appointed for this court. If you appoint me for
any other, especially that which is mentioned to me, Vienna, it
will be more disagreeable to me than to be recalled ; because
Vienna is the court of all Europe, as I conceive at present,
the least likely to receive your agent. I should, therefore, be
reduced to the necessity of residing at Paris in idleness, or of
travelling to Germany, and living there in greater idleness still ;
in either case, at a great and useless expense.
In time of peace, nothing would give me greater pleasure
than travelling ; but at present my heart is too much affected
with the miseries of this war, for me to take pleasure in a mere
gratification of curiosity, or even a pursuit of taste in arts, or
knowledge in sciences. To return home immediately, some
persons here say would give offence, and be wrong. To wait
to write for leave, would be losing time, and putting you to
some expense ; howevfjr, I will determine nothing until I know
what is done. Remember me with the tendcrest affection, and
greatest respect to your colleagues, and all others that deserve it.
TO MRS. AVARREN.
Passy, 15 December, 1778.
Madam, — A few days ago, I had the pleasure of your oblig-
ing letter of the 15th of October. It came by the post, and
CORRESPONDENCE. 475
single, not a line from any other person, so that I knew not by
what means it reached Lorient. It was not, however, the less
welcome to me. Its intrinsic excellence would have recom-
mended it, whoever had written it. The merit of the writer
would have made it dear to me, if the letter itself had been
indifferent, a supposition not very easy to make in this case.
I afn sorry, very sorry, for our common country, that the
unshaken patriot you mention should think of retiring ; ^ but
I cannot blame him, because my own thoughts are constantly
running in the same way, and I am determined, with submis-
sion, to do the same thing.
I hope, however, Madam, that there is not so total a change
of manners, as some appearances may indicate. A paper cur-
rency, fluctuating in its value, will ever produce appearances in
the political, commercial, and even the moral world, that are
very shocking at first sight; but, upon examination, they will
not be found to proceed from a total want of principle, but, for
the most part, from necessity.
Who will take the helm, Madam, and, indeed, who will build
the ship, I know not. But of one thing I am well convinced,
that a great part of the evils you mention arise from the neglect
to model the Constitution and fix the Government. These
things must be finished, and the dispute, who shall be the head,
is much less important than whether we shall have any.
I am happy to learn. Madam, that so many of the most
respectable strangers have had an opportunity to visit you. I
am pleased with this, because it has given you an opportunity
of speculating upon these illustrious characters, and because it
has given them an opportunity of observing that their new ally
can boast of female characters equal to any in Europe.
I have not the honor to know Mrs. Holker. She lives at
Rouen, at a distance. However, I have gratified Mr. H.'s father
Avith a sight of his son's portrait drawn by a lady, which he
could not read without the tears gushing from both his eyes.
As to portraits, Madam, I dare not try my hand as yet. But
my design is to retire, like my friend, and spend all my leisure
hours in writing a history of this revolution, and, with a hand
as severe as Tacitus, I wish to God it was as eloquent, draw
1 General Warren.
476 CORRESPONDENCE.
the portrait of every character that has figured in the business.
But, when it is done, I will dig a vault, and bury the manu-
script, with a positive injunction that it shall not be opened till
a hundred years after my death.
What shall I say. Madam, to your question, whether I am as
much in the good graces of the ladies as my venerable colleague ?
Ah, no ! Alas, alas, no ! The ladies of this country, Madam,
have an unaccountable passion for old age, whereas our coun-
trywomen, you know, Madam, have rather a complaisance for
youth, if I remember right. This is rather unlucky for me, be-
cause here I have nothing to do but wish that I was seventy
years old, and, when I get back to America, I shall be obliged
to wish myself back again to five-and-twenty.
I will take the liberty to mention an anecdote or two. Madam,
among a multitude, to show you how unfortunate I am in being
so young. A gentleman introduced me, the other day, to a lady.
" Vuild, Madame,''^ said he, " Monsieur Adams, notre ami, le col-
legue de Monsieur Franklin." "Je suis enchante de voir Mon-
sieur Adams," answered the lady. " Embrassez le done," replied
the gentleman. " Ah, non, Monsieur," said the lady, " il est trop
jeune.
So that you see I must wait patiently full thirty years longer
before I can be so great a favorite.
Madam, I can give you no news. The Lords and Commons
have refused to censure the manifesto of the commissioners.
That unhappy nation are going on in their frenzy ; but there is
an awful gloom and melancholy among them, and with reason.
TO JAMES LOVELL.
Passy, 20 February, 1779.
• ••••••••••
I cannot lay aside my pen without saying, that the accusa-
tions before Congress against the Messrs. Lee and, I know not
who besides, distress me beyond measure. I fear they will per-
petuate altercation, without bringing any gi-eat truths to light
for the benefit of the public. I have sighed, and mourned, and
wept, for that intemperance of passions, which I very early dis-
CORRESPONDENCE. 477
covered here, without being able to soften or to cool it in the
least degree. I wish I could draw the portrait of every charac-
ter here, as it appears in ray eyes ; but this would be imprudent,
and, if it should be known, would do public mischief, full
enough of which has been done already by indiscretion.
Our old incidental agent is an honest man, faithful and
zealous in our cause. But there is an acrimony in his temper,
there is a jealousy, there is an obstinacy, and a want of candor
at times, and an aff'ectation of secrecy, the fruit of jealousy,
which renders him disagreeable often to his friends, makes him
enemies, and gives them infinite advantages over him. That he
has had great provocations here, I never doubted, and since the
appearance of the address less than ever.^
There is another character here, exceedingly respectable in
fortune, education, travel, honor, integrity, love of his country,
and zeal in its cause ; but Tacitus would say his passions are
always strong, often violent ; and he has not experience in
public life.2 These two gentlemen have been very intimate,
and have encouraged, no doubt, and often irritated each other.
Another thing, I think that other gentleman ought not to have
been here ; he should have been in Italy or in America; or, being
here, I really think he ought not to have interfered so much.
This is simply my opinion. I may be wrong. That that gen-
tleman thought he was doing his duty, I am clear. But of this
I am persuaded, that if he had been in Italy, things would
never have gone to the lengths they have.
On the other hand, most of the old connections of the Dr.
and Mr. Deane were filled with prejudices against those two
gentlemen. One party was striving to get the better of the
other, to lower its reputation and diminish its authority.
In this chaos I found things, and have been tossed in it. On
the other hand, there was a monopoly of reputation here, and an
indecency in displaying it, which did great injustice to the real
merit of others, that I do not wonder was resented. There was
an indolence there was a dissipation, which gave just occasion
of complaint, and there was a complaisance to interested adven-
turers. There was an intimacy with stockjobbers; there was
an acquaintance with persons from England, which gave just
1 Arthur Leo. The Address referred to is Silas Deane's.
2 Ralph Izard.
478 CORRESPONDENCE.
occasion of jealousy, however innocent the intentions were. I
have learned that total silence is enough to procure a character
for prudence, whatever indiscretions a man may commit.
In this state of things, Congress have had the wisdom and
the fortitude to do the only thing which could be done for put-
ting matters on a better footing; but this will last a very little
while, if money matters are not separated from political. Some
other thing must be done; some resolution must be passed,
forbidding every man, in the most positive terms, who has anv
connection with your minister here, from having any connection
with English stocks, insurances, &c., and forbidding all corre-
spondence with them. There is in England a practice of mak-
ing insurances on political events, which has interested the
whole alley in American politics, and has thrown all into dis-
traction.
I have been wholly without information of what was passing
in Congress and, indeed, in America, especially in Philadelphia.
My friends, I know, have been engaged in doing the public
business, not in strengthening the hands of individuals or par-
ties here. But bushels of letters have come to adventurers here,
containing information more exact in some things, and not so
true in others as they ought to be.
TO SAMUEL COOPER,
Passy, 28 February, 1779.
Dear Sir, — Your letter by the Marquis de Lafayette I have
received, and it contained so handsome a testimony to the
merit of that gallant young nobleman, as well as so many judi-
cious observations on other subjects, that I have ventured to
permit it to be translated and published.
The complaint against the family of Lees is a very extraor-
dinary thing indeed. I am no idolater of that family or any
other ; but I believe their greatest fault is having more men of
merit in it than any other family ; and if that family fails the
American cause, or grows unpopular among their fellow-citizens,
I know not what family or what person will stand the test.
CORRESPONDENCE. 479
There is reason, however, to be upon our guard against the
power of a family of so much merit ; and if the complaint had
only been, that one of the family was minister at the Courts of
Versailles and Madrid, another at Vienna and Berlin, I would
have joined in that with all my heart. But this, to my certain
knowledge, was not the fault of the family, but partly owing to
accident, and partly because other gentlemen refused or declined
to undertake so dangerous a voyage and so difficult a service.
If the complaint had been confined to the want of figure,
dignity, and address, I should have left the discussion of such
important questions to those who think so much of them, and
these might have determined whether the complainers or com-
plainees have most to boast of in this kind.
If the complaint had been confined to the subject of temper,
I should not have thought it worth while to consider long, in
order to determine which was the most inconvenient to the
State, a little too much asperity, or a little too much good
nature, a little too much acid, or a little too nmch oil.
But when the complaint becomes so outrageous as to throw
about the world insinuations of infidelity and breach of trust
against some of the most faithful and inflexible men in the
community, it becomes the cause of every virtuous man, and
such injured characters must be vindicated, or the State undone.
The publication of this address ^ to the universe, instead of
making it in writing to Congress, was a measure beyond all ex-
ample dangerous and destructive. But enough of this. Good,
I hope, will come out of it, and lessons will be learned from it.
Lessons of moderation are so much wanted, that I, even I, am
obliged to become a preacher of that great virtue ; but with as
little success as most other preachers.
So much for ourselves, now for our enemies. Keppel's trial
has wrought up parties to a great heat in England. Tumults
and discontents are very general throughout the three kingdoms.
The two Howes, with many members of opposition in both
houses, seem to be arranging themselves for warm work ; and
impeachments are talked of and expected. Whether Palliser
will have a trial, is uncertain ; if he should, this will probably
complete the rage and distraction. Lord North's loan has
1 Silas Deane's. See vol. iii. p. 191.
480 CORRESPONDENCE.
labored a long time ; it was settled the 23d, at three per cent,
for perpetuity, an annuity of three and three fourths per cent,
for twenty-nine years, and seven lottery tickets for every thou-
sand pounds. The ticket is ten pounds, but always gains two
or three per ticket before the drawing, and every year the war
continues, the interest must be greater, and the expense greater.
Almost all parties seem to say freely that the kingdom is un-
done ; yet none of them have sense and spirit enough to propose
the only means for preventing the ruin they apprehend. Their
conquest of St. Lucie will only be a grave to their troops, of
whom they have none to spare.
JAMES LOVELL TO JOHN ADAMS.
(Confidential.)
PhiladeliDliia, 13 June, 1779.
I shall not look through the notes in my almanac to see
whether I have written to you twenty-two or twenty-four times.
I shall go upon the easier task of acknowledging all those I have
had from you, namely: 6th December, 1778, received 16th Fe-
bruary, 1779, answered the 17th. 26th September, 1778, received
4th March, 1779, answered 28th April.
Three months ago Mr. G.^ communicated to us that Spain
was mediating, and that we ought to take speedy, decisive mea-
sures for peace. London Gazettes told us the first part; and it
appears strange that neither Dr. F., Mr. L., nor you have hinted
this matter to us lately, if you did not avow it authoritatively.
We have some wise men here, who are sure they could fish out all
the court secrets. In the various attempts to pull down A. L.
to make way for some one to go from hence " who knows all
the present circumstances of America, and therefore could nego-
tiate properly," your want of ability to give us information such
as we wish for, or fancy can be had, is said to spring from the
suspicions of the French Court respecting one of you ; and
something like an attempt to dictate to us a choice has been
' Gtrartl, tlie French minister.
CORRESPONDENCE. 481
seen here. An extract of a letter from the Count "de V. has
been quoted, " Je crains Monsieur A. L. et ses entours,^^ and we
are tempted to think that therefore the communication before-
mentioned came through Mr. G. But this is different from what
was once the conduct; for Mr. Deane tells us that he was
directed to tell Dr. F. what he did not choose to tell Mr. Lee, or,
as he wishes to have it believed, which he was forbidden to tell
him. I am persuaded ^ Dr. F. w^ould not readily disgust the
French Court in such a point. If there is any seriousness in
the business, I suppose the Court stood upon the punctilio of
not having the compliment of a minister plenipotentiary returned
at that time, Mr. Lee's enemies have produced nothing but
innuendoes to procure his removal, while they dare not deny his
integrity and abilities in our service. Mr. D. says, the Lees are
not fit for transactions with a " gallant " nation. But doubtless
those men who want his place would be very gallant indeed on
certain points in negotiation. The eastern States are charged
with wanting what they have no right to, and what is of " no
interest to the southern States." Plenty are these local senti-
ments lately ; and R. H. Lee with H. Laurens are squinted at
as two monsters on the other side of Susquehannah, who pur-
sue points in which the southern States have no interest. Would
France or FiUgland reason that way on the fishery ? 1 expect,
however, that we shall coalesce in a few days upon what may-
be ultimata ready for some future day of pacification, when
Britain shall be restored to her senses. She is quite wild and
foolish yet, in my opinion.
You will be scarcely able by our motley journals to under-
stand what we are about. Why did I vote for your name to
be inserted, April 20th, page 10? A majority against me had
before resolved that the names should be added; that Dr. Frank-
lin's should be inserted ; but did not proceed by yeas and nays,
therefore I was entrapped. Not having my iiay appear on Dr.
V
' In what purports to be a duplicate of tills letter, Mr. Lovell makes many
variations. The followinj; occurs here :
" I am persuaded Dr. Franklin would not readily blab any matter to Mr. Lee
which the Court might confidentially tell Mm. But it may be said the Doctor
was perhaps at that period only on a par with Mr. Lee and you, so that he could
not officially convey the news of a negotiation from France to us, Avithout con-
sulting Mr. Lee. It has been attempted to persuade us that Spain is disgusted
wnth Mr. Lee. If more than innuendoes had been addi-essed, we should have
made a new appointment perhaps ; though it is a very delicate matter."
vol.. IX. '^1 F. 2
482 CORRESPONDENCE.
Franklin, could .1 say nay to Deane, the causa malorum ? And
as it was not mutual suspicions, &c., I could not exclude you,
who was suspected and stigmatized in the report of the com-
mittee, though more to the disgrace of Mr. Izard than yourself,
if there was any disgrace in the circumstance of his imagining
that your connection with the " eaters and distillers of molas-
ses " ^ had warped your judgment against the interest of other
parts of the continent. Mr. Izard has good testimony to his
many estimable qualities, but his best friends say he is irascible
even when he has not a fit of the gout, as he vmfortunately had
when he was writing of Dr. Franklin, and probably, too, when
he made his strictures upon your opinion of the 11th and 12th
articles.^
Every appearance is that you will not be passed over without
honorable notice, when the report receives its finishing discus-
sion. My own settled opinion of you leads me the more readily
to think there is no plot concealed under the professions in your
favor, which have fallen from men lately, whose general conduct
is of a kind to make me cry,
Timeo Danaos et donaferentes?
I firmly believe that your friend Lincoln has got complete
success over the southern enemy. He will receive permission
1 See vol. in. p. 48, note.
2 The version of the duplicate is more to tlie point. ]\Ir. L. says :
"A majority against me had resolved, 1st, that the names should be added ;
2dly, that Dr. Franklin's should be inserted ; but did not proceed by yeas and
nays ; therefore I was entrapped. Not having my nay to show in the first, I
was forced to go through uniformly. It being as true that suspicions and ani-
mosities had been minuted by the committee respecting you as respecting the
rest ; for the report did not say mutual suspicions, &c. It was calculated to open
the door for several new elections."
3 The 4th article, reported by the committee of thirteen, upon which the
question arose, is in the following words :
" That suspicions and animosities have arisen among the said commissioners,
■which may be highly prejudicial to the honor and interest of the United
States."
Mr. Duane moved that the names of the commissioners be added, taking the
sense of the House on each name to be added, which motion prevailed.
Dr. Franklin's name was inserted without yeas and nays. The names of all
the other commissioners were inserted by large majorities, excepting Mr. Adams's.
In his case the friends of Arthur Lee appear to have voted to include him,
whilst his opponents took the other side, thus acting on both sides, contrary to
the prevailing affinities in Congress. This explains Mr. Lovell's allusions.
CORRESPONDENCE. 483
to return hither just in the hours of glory, so that he may attend
to his wound, which was greatly irritated by his expedition to
Carolina. This night is the fourteenth since we first had the
news of his victory, via New Providence. Confirmation is come
from several quarters, but still we have not an express.^ Tucker
has sent in a twenty-four gun ship this afternoon, which did not
fire a shot at him before striking. It is at the capes with the
Confederacy, one of the finest frigates in any service, as is said
by voyagers.
I wish you every happiness, being, &c.
J. LOVELL.
TO ELBRIDGE GERRY.
Braintree, 10 September, 1779.
I received by last post your obliging letter of 24th of August.
The sight of your handwriting gave me more pleasure than you
are aware. ' I would send you copies of my letters to you, if
they were not out of date at this time.
I thank you for your compliment on my letter to Congress.^
It is a long dull story ; but I think several things appear from
it that are of great importance. It appears that the general
arrangement of interests and designs in Europe is more favor-
able for us than even the most sanguine of us could have
expected ; that we have no reason to fear that England will be
able to form one alliance against us ; that, if she should, that
one will be the House of Austria, notwithstanding there is an
excellent Austrian princess on the throne of France, in which
case Prussia and Russia, too, would join France and us ; that
the King of Prussia and Holland should be cultivated ; and,
what perhaps is of as much importance as all the rest, it ap-
pears from it that France has already derived the most solid
and essential advantages from our separation from Great Bri-
tain and alliance with her ; that she will continue to derive still
greater benefits, and therefore that we may rely upon her friend-
ship, without sacrificing any essential right or interest from a
' Confirmation never came. ~ Vol. vli. pp. 09-110.
484 CORRESPONDENCE.
servile complaisance to her, much less to the low intrigues of
a few hucksters.
I have done your message to Portia ; she desires me to tell
you, that there is great encouragement to undertake embassies
to Europe, and she is very happy to hear of so certain a sign
of grace, as your impatience to join our sacred order.i
Your resolution, that no person shall be appointed to any
office within twelve months of his being a member of Congress,
may be too much. I should rather prefer a resolution never to
appoint any man abroad that they do not personally know.
Yet I think that resolutions so universal had better be avoided
in either case.
You have several very great men, by all relation, who have
joined Congress since I left it. No doubt, they are thought
superior to others who have gone before them. If they are,
both in abilities and virtues, I wish them success. I have a
great desire to see the journals at, before, and after my appoint-
ment to go to France, and all the journals. I should be greatly
obliged to you for them. I should also be very happy to be
informed by what majority I was chosen, and who was for and
against, and who else in nomination. I never heard a word on
this subject. Do not again forget to write to your old and sin-
cere friend.
Thank you for voting me clear of suspicions, &c., dishonorable
to the States.^ I have a bone to pick with Adams and Lovell
for their votes on that occasion.
TO THOMAS MCKEAN.
Braintree, 20 September, 1779.
It is a long time since I had the pleasure to see you ; but my
esteem is not at all diminished. None of us have any thing to
boast of in these times, in respect to the happiness of life. You
have been in disagreeable scenes, I doubt not ; mine have been
much worse than I expected.
' INTt. Gerry -was yet unmarried. 2 Vol. vii. p. 3, note.
CORRESPONDENCE. 485
1 never heard of any jealousy, or envy, or malevolence among
our commissioners at Paris until my arrival at Bordeaux. Judge
of my surprise, grief, and mortification, then, when I heard at
Bordeaux, and found on my arrival at Paris, the heat and fury
to which it had arisen. Both sides most earnestly besieged me,
in order to get me to join their party ; but I saw the only part
a man of honor and confidence could take in my situation, was
Jo join neither. Accordingly, I invariably and firmly refused to
have any thing to do with their disputes, before my arrival, or
after, any further than they should unavoidably intermix with
the public questions, in which my office obliged me to give an
opinion ; and then, to give it impartially for the public good. I
accordingly lived not only in peace, but in apparent friendship
with both sides. If there was any animosity in either against
me personally, it was very artfully concealed from me, and
certainly never had any just cause. Since my arrival here, I
am informed that I have been honored with a little of the ill
humor of both sides, and I beg your assistance in Congress,
that I may be informed of the particulars as I have requested.
Congress have done the only thing that could dissolve the
charm ; that is, left one alone.
An opposition in parliament, in a house of assembly, in a
council, in Congress, is highly useful and necessary to balance
individuals, and bodies, and interests one against another, and
bring the truth to light, and justice to prevail. But an opposi-
tion in a foreign embassy, in the circumstances of this country
and of Europe, is ruin. There can be no secrecy, no confidence,
when such an opposition takes place, much less where there are
such infernal quarrels as were between my colleagues.
It would be better to employ a single man of sense, even
although he should be as selfish and interested as is possible,
consistent with fealty to his country, than three honest men,
even of greater abilities, any two of whom should be at open
variance with each other. It would be better to employ a
single stockjobber or a single monopofizer. It is better still, no
doubt, to employ one man of virtue and ability.
I presume Congress intend to appoint a secretary to the
commission, and to appoint consuls for the management of
commercial "and maritime matters. It is highly necessary.
Franklin is a wit and a humorist^ I know. He may be a phi-
" 41*
486 CORRESPONDENCE.
losopher, for what I know. But he is not a sufficient states-
man for all the business he is in. He knows too little of Ame-
rican affairs, of the politics of Europe, and takes too little pains
to inform himself of either, to be sufficient for all these things,
to be ambassador, secretary, admiral, consular agent, &c. Yet
such is his name, on both sides the w^ater, that it is best, per-
haps, that he should be left there ; but a secretary and consuls
should be appointed to do the business, or it will not be done ;
or, if done, it will be by people who insinuate themselves into
his confidence, without either such heads or hearts as Congress
should trust. He is too old, too infirm, too indolent and dissi-
pated, to be sufficient for the discharge of all the important du-
ties of ambassador, board of war, board of treasury, commissary
of prisoners, &c., &c,, &c., as he is at present, in that depart-
ment, besides an immense correspondence and acquaintance,
each of which would be enough for the whole time of the most
active man in the vigor of youth.
I write plainly, but confidentially. I write to you, because I
believe you have not been heated with any of the personal dis-
putes between or concerning the commissioners.
JAMES LOVELL TO JOHN ADAMS.
(Confidential.)
Philadelphia, Monday, 27 September, 1779.
Not knowing, my dear Sir, how certain things now in agita-
tion may this day be terminated here, I choose to state at this
time some proceedings, two days old, that I may not be thought
to give them a gloss in the style of an after-prophet turned
historian or painter. For a groundwork I refer you to the
report of the committee of thirteen, with its consequent yeas
and nays, which is certainly now in your hands in print ;^ and
also to what you must have somehow or other come to the
knowledge of, respecting a long struggle about cod and had-
1 See the Journal of Congress for 1779, pp. 29, 149, 150, 157-167, 179,
246-251.
CORRESPONDENCE. 487
dock;i and further, to your own reading and judgment con-
cerning the parliamentary propriety of appointing a man to
carry into effect, by all the powers of skilful negotiation, a mea-
sure to which he has been opposed tooth and nail in the whole
preparatory progress of it. Nor can I omit to call to your mind
what I already must have written either to you or the lovely
Portia, that the lentor of proceedings here should account for
the appearances of injustice done you by an assembly, nine
tenths of which profess, and probably have, an esteem for you.
Two things are to be transacted with Britain, a major and
consequent minor, as soon as her madness and folly begin to
subside. But only one agent is to manage them. The com-
missions are drawn, and instructions also. The blanks are to
be filled. Dr. Franklin was nominated, out of order. This led
one man to suggest that he should find himself obliged, when
such a nomination should again be attempted, and done in
order, to follow it with the nomination of Dr. Lee, as a much
more suitable character, which he would endeavor to make
plain by various testimonies in his possession, part known and
part yet unknown to the Assembly. A question was then
moved by a gentleman in that company, named Matthews, and
seconded by one named Loveli,^ that no member, while there
acting, or for nine months after, should be elected to a place,
for which he, or another for him, received any salary, &c. By
yeas and nays the nine months' part^ was lost; and the other
part, by the previous question. J. Adams was nominated by
Mr. Laurens, and J. Jay by Mer. Smith. Adjourned to meet
on the next day (Sunday) at 10 o'clock. Met. Balloted, five
for J. A., four for J. J., three could not agree. On a second
trial, six for J. A., four for J. J., one could not agree. The
mover of the motion above, not being likely to consent with his
colleague to carry it into effect, the balloting was postponed.
It had been frequently pressed on the members to order some
resolves now on the table, and but very lately passed, respecting
points on which the temper of Spain towards us greatly de-
pends, to be forwarded to the commissioner at that court, as
1 Secret Journals, vol. ii. pp. 130-145, 149-167, 173-189, 201-210. An
abstract of these proceedings is to be found in the valuable report lately made for
the Treasury Department, by Mr. Sabine, on the American fisheries, pp. 149 - 151.
2 According to the secret journal, Mr. Gerry seconded this motion.
3 This was presented In the shape of an amendment to the original motion.
488 CORRESPONDENCE.
answers to the questions which he hinted to us in six days after
the treaties with France, again on the 2d of April, again plainly
and urgently for our answer .on August 27th, again more ur-
gently on October 19th, again on December 5th, &c., &c. A
cut-and-dried commission, such as must pass hereafter, was
produced, moved for, and seconded, out of order. A motion was
then made and seconded for choosing a minister plenipotentiary
to do exactly what a commissioner is now fully authorized to
do ; as much so, exactly, as were the three at the Court of
France. The pretence for this was the accepted second para-
graph of a report (vide April 15th), that ministers plenipotentiary
were only necessary at Versailles and Madrid ; the spirit and
intent of which paragraph lay in the word ow///, and not in a
technical use of ministers, as settled by France and us on the
arrival of Mr. Gerard. Some good and not young men, on thia
question, saw not the trap under the chaff. Who could deny
that we have assented to additional parade and expense in a
minister above a commissioner ? Who could deny that two
persons would be in pay, for a time, at once, to do the same
business ? Who could deny that A. Lee's complete vindications
were on the table of Congress ? This last matter and all cha-
racterizing was said to be untimehj, as much as in a question
about creating a Quartermaster- G'ewera/, when we had a Quar-
termaster. For that A. Lee stood as fair for nomination to the
new commission as any man else, and tlien we should be
allowed full liberty to speak to character. A majority can thus
kill, but it requires seven to make alive. But seven thus killed.
For Mr. Laurens, though he spoke against the question, voted
for it, and then nominated A. Lee. This act of his, in such a
desperate case, does not make up for depriving a much injured
man of the advantage of showing that he was artfully knocked
down by six upon a presumption that seven could not be found
to assist in recovering him from the violence of the blow. Mr.
J. Adams was also nominated for Spain by Mr. Paca, Mr. J.
Jay by Mr. Mercer of Virginia,
This accommodation scheme had been proposed in whispers
early in the morning, to provide places for the tioo nominated
the day before. One to have a post of the highest honor, and
the other to take the post of a man murdered on purpose to
make room. Are not these doings a complete appendix to the
CORRESPONDENCE. 489
report of the committee of thirteen, and the proceedings thereon
months ago? Look at the names! Here I must join in an old
exclamation of F. L. L., when he had seen a whole day wasted,
" What d — d dirty work is this of politics ! "
I will now state the votes, remarking that, being Sunday, Mr.
McKean was able to attend ; but your sworn friend, the farmer,^
will alone finish it. New York is represented by Mr. Jay and
Mr. Lewis, not by one. New Jersey by Mr. Fell and Mr. Hous-
ton, Connecticut by Mr. Huntington or Mr. Root.
First ballot.2
J. A. New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connect-
icut, Delaware, ....... 5
J. J. New York, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, . 4
Second ballot.
J. A. New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connect-
icut, Delaware, Pennsylvania, .... 6
J. J. New York, INIaryland, Virginia, North Carolina, New
Jersey, ......... 5
Vote for a minister for Spain.
Yea : Connecticut, New Y'ork, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia,
North Carolina, South Carolina, .... 7
Nay: New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Delaware, . . 3
Divided : Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, .... 2
JAMES LOVELL TO JOHN ADAMS,
(Confidential.)
Philadelphia, 28 September, 1779.
Yesterday, in whispers, the proposal was made to send J. A.
to Spain, the balloting for that business being first called for.
But Connecticut and Pennsylvania discovered a total abhorrence
of the consequences in the second ballot; therefore the plan
was dropped, and the ballots were ;
A. Lee. New Hampshire.
J. Jay. My colleagues, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey,
Dickinson, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina.
1 John Dickinson, ^ These ballots are not given in the journal.
490 CORRESPONDENCE.
No vote, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, South Carolina.
For the tw^o other commissions, J. A. the only nomination.
All the States, but one for Dr. Franklin. If this was not the
piddler} it might be the oddity of Virginia.
Prior to the choice for Spain, I produced your two first letters
as appertaining to the only one point which had ever appeared
incontestable against A. Lee. "Je crams M. Lee et ses en-
tours.'^ 2 For the minister, disavowing on February 13th his
having adopted prejudices such as were attempted to be inspu*ed
in America, and proving his disavowal by an appeal to his con-
duct to you " ensemble et scpai'ement,''^ shows either that he
meant only avec ses entours, or that he felt convinced he had
been drawn into unjust doubts, and intended to show double
confidence in future.
The whole members, even Jay, praise " my perseverance ; "
but he says, in " friendship to Arthur." Time will show whether
it has not been to prevent Congress from an act of injustice,
and to maintain the sacredness of the approbation or disappro-
bation of our united supremacy; which is what the servant of
republics should look up to, rather than to salaries and perqui-
sites, which the levity of monarchies makes their servants catch
ivhile they can, without striving to deserve them.
I am freed from a load ; for I have long practised upon Da-
vid's rule. Away with sackcloth and ashes, when evitables
become inevitable. J. J. desires me to be as true to him " only
while he continues to do honestly." That I most assuredly
will, and to every name that the public choice shall fall on.
But I cannot forget the past so far as not to think that if Silas
Deane is not stone blind, he may now see from what source he
got his fund of advice towards measures apparently his own.
Carmichael, Houston, and Mr. Jay's brother, Livingston, are
talked of as secretaries to the embassies. Gerry tells me Dana
may be induced to go with you.
And now, my very dear Sir, as to the main point. America
ought not to pardon you, if you put its peace to the hazard of
a second ballot. As an individual, I swear I never will. And
as to Portia, if I can by my utmost industry find out that only
1 Dickinson. The allusion is to Mr. Adams's intercepted letter, vol. ii. p. 411,
note.
2 See page 481.
CORRESPONDENCE. 491
one tear, or even a sigh, comes from her, I will burn all her past
letters, much as I now regard them. I will allow her a little
regret, if she will not let it amount to a sigh, while she con-
siders with me that you cannot be here to manage the Vermont
cause. You must give all possible information to Massachu-
setts government through some able man or committee, before
you go from thence or hence.
I have tired all my pens yesterday and to-day, in conversing
with those I love southward and eastward.
Heaven protect you.
James Lovell.
ELBRIDGE GERRY TO JOHN ADAMS^
Philadelphia, 29 September, 1779.
My DEAR Mr. Adams, — It is with the greatest pleasure that
I inform you of the late arrangement of our foreign affairs, in
which you are appointed to negotiate the treaties with Great
Britain, and our friend, Mr. Dana, to be your secretary. Mr.
Jay is to negotiate with Spain, Mr. Carmichael to be his secre-
tary, and Colonel John Laurens, son of the late President
Laurens, to be secretary to Dr. Franklin.
I shall not be able at this time to give you a history of the
proceedings of Congress relative to their foreign affairs. The
embarrassments, difficulties, and delays attending this business,
in consequence of the disputes between the late commissioners,
have exceeded every thing of the kind which I have before met
with. So far have some of their friends in Congress been
influenced by attachments and prejudice, as to render it impos-
sible to preserve their friendship and confidence, and, at the
same time, to act with becoming freedom and independence.
I flatter myself that you will not hesitate a moment at accept-
ing the highest office of honor and trust under the United
States, when elected thereto by the voice of eleven States.
[ndeed, it may be called unanimous, as there was only a single
vote for Dr. Franklin, who was not in nomination, and it is said
to have been ])ut in by Delaware, at that time represented by
492 CORRESPONDENCE.
your old friend, Mr. D.^ Great exertions were made to send
you to Spain, and Mr. Jay on the other embassy; but the
opposition of your friends produced from the gentlemen in favor
of Mr. Jay, a proposal of accommodation, in consequence
whereof he was appointed by eight States. The appointment
of Mr. Dana is, in my humble opinion, of the next importance ;
and should he accept it, he may stand candidate for the next
vacancy in Europe.
It is almost time to acknowledge the receipt of your esteemed
favor of the 27th November, 1778, and of the 10th and 11th
instant. The first is of so early a date, as not to require an
answer, and a prudent use shall be made of the last. Agree-
ably to your request in the other, I transmit by the bearer the
journals of Congress to the present time, as far as they are
printed. Those for 1778 are now in the press. With respect
to the circumstances of your first appointment, it was in conse-
quence of a nomination, which I intended to make after having
endeavored to discover your sentiments on the subject. I re-
member you were more reserved than I thought you ought to
have been ; and two of your colleagues then in Yorktown, to
whom I proposed the matter, objected to it as not being agree-
able to you. When the nomination was made, if I rightly
remember, the one that remained in Congress after you left it,
expressed his doubts on the occasion ;2 but being determined
to try the experiment, I informed the House that I had com-
municated to you my design of nomination, and that, although
you were very silent on the affair, I was fully persuaded you
would not decline the duty. This fixed the matter in the minds
of your friends. Mr. R. Livingston was nominated by New
York, and by recurring to the printed journals you will find the
voters in your favor distinguished by dots, vol. iii, p. 547.^
' Dickinson.
2 James Lovell.
3 Mr. Folsom, representing New Hampshire ; Messrs. Gerry, Lovell, and
Dana, for Massachusetts ; Mr. Ellery, for Rhode Island; Messrs. Dyer, Law,
and Williams, for Connecticut; Messrs. Morris, Roberdeau, and Clingan, for
Pennsylvania ; Messrs. R. H. and F. L. Lee and Harvie, three of four from Vir-
ginia. Mr. Laurens's name is marked, but at the foot of the page is the following :
" N. B. South Carolina did not vote on the above occasion, but was repre-
sented by Mr. Laurens."
Mr. Duane and Mr. Duer, representing New York ; Messrs. Smith and Rum-
sey, for Maryland ; Messrs. Penn and Harnett, for North Carolina ; Mr. Jones,
of Virginia, and Mr. Langworthy, of Georgia, appear to have voted in the
minority.
CORRESPONDENCE. 493
It is some time since this transaction hajDpened, and I may
be mistaken in some points, but I further recollect that in con-
ferring with you, I mentioned my former intention of nominating
you in the fall of the year 1776, and that Mr. R. H. Lee told me
you had informed him that you would not accept the appoint-
ment, if made, which last circumstance not being remembered
by you, was an additional argument in my mind for pushing
your election at Yorktown.
I conceived myself bound by every principle of honor, inte-
grity, and policy, to " vote you clear of suspicions, &c., dishonor-
able to the State." When the question was proposed for insert-
ing your name in that resolution, I opposed it as unjust, and the
inclosed copy of the futile charge against you, and evidence to
support it, will, I think, warrant my conduct. If unjust, then
surely it was impolitic, as your future usefulness would have
been destroyed, for a time at least. I conceived it so, and was
therefore bound in honor not to sport with your character. I
mean not, however, to throw reflection on the conduct of gentle-
men of a different opinion.^ They probably had a different
view of the subject, and may be highly commendable for a
measure which it would have been criminal in me to have
adopted.
While I am on this subject, give me leave to observe that
your letter to Congress, desiring a copy of the charges against
you, was yesterday read, on which I moved the House to com-
ply with your request ; but it was objected to from several
quarters, as an improper measure, since the House had almost
unanimously, by your late appointment, rejected the charge,
and had in the first instance cleared you of the animosities sub-
sisting among the other commissioners. It was also said, that
the admission of weight in the charge was dishonorable to the
House, which, in that case, would have been in duty bound to
postpone your appointment until you were acquitted of the
charge. The objections were agreeable to my mind, and I
withdrew the motion, at the same time informing the House
that I should furnish you with the papers requested.
Upon the whole, I am of opinion, that, in the esteem of Con-
gi-ess, your character is as high as any gentleman's in America;
I S. Adams and James Lovell voted in favor of the motion, for reasons here-
tofore explained. See page 482 of this volume, and the note.
VOL. IX. 42
494 CORRESPONDENCE.
that as much is obtained in the arrangement and determinations
of our foreign afl'airs as could be expected ; that if matters had
been driven further, we should have been more deeply involved
in animosities and dissensions, and have put a total stop to our
foreign negotiations ; that in consequence thereof we must, on
the return of Monsieur Gerard, have sunk in the esteem of our
ally, of the Court of Spain, and of all Europe ; that Dr. Franklin
ought to be recalled; that, however some late measures may not
be equal to our wishes, it becomes our indispensable duty to sup-
port them with vigor, and to listen no more to insinuations with-
out evidence to support them ; that an able, upright, firm friend
to America is greatly injured in Dr. Lee, as well by the impolicy
of some of his friends,* as by the undeserved reproach of his
enemies ; but that, his usefulness being destroyed, had it been
practicable to have continued him in office, he could not have
served with satisfaction to himself or advantage to the public.
I have been well informed, that hints have been thrown oat
here, relative to my votes for recalling Dr. Lee, which I do not
relish. I have, however, suppressed my feelings, because it is
extremely injurious to the public interest to have their servants
involved in disputes with each other. I shall return prepared to
justify my conduct in every point, and should any attempts be
made to misrepresent it, I shall be under the necessity of show-
ing that it has been ever directed in Congress by disinterested
public motives ; that it has been always free from views of
extending my personal interest or influence, or of supporting
private attachments ; and I think I can answer for the policy of
the measures which I have adopted.
Perhaps you may think this deviating from delicacy ; but,
conscious of the rectitude of my intentions, I cannot bear the
breath of reflection. I voted for the recall of all the commis-
sioners included in the resolution of the 20th of April last, as
an indispensable obligation arising from the resolution itself,
and also, as a preliminary measure for fully inquiring into the
conduct of those gentlemen, that the character of each may be
fairly known and represented to the public. The States divided
* I am informed, and I tliink from the best authority, that a resignation of Mr.
Lee's, conceived in terms that would do honor to any man on earth, has been in
the hands of a friend of his in Congress, and suppressed two months, by which
means he has been prevented from avoiding a sui)ersedure. Note hj/ Mr. Gerry.
CORRESPONDENCE. 495
oil Dr. Lee, and he was continued in oiKce, contrary, in my
opinion, to every principle of government, where a majority is
to rule. This happened by the mode in which the question was
put, " shall he be recalled," instead of "shall he be continued."
In the latter case, a division would have lost the question, and he
would have been recalled, which the States, who were against
him, being apprised of, conceived the matter, as it stood, both
unreasonable and vmfair. After Congress had finished their
instructions relative to negotiations, a question arose, who
should execute them. Reference being then made to a resolu-
tion of the 15th of April last, " that ministers plenipotentiary for
these States are only necessary for the present, at the Courts of
Versailles and Madrid," a motion was made, that " a minister
plenipotentiary, in lieu of a commissioner, be appointed to
negotiate a treaty of alliance, and unity, and commerce,
between the United States of America and his Catholic Ma-
jesty," and the question was carried as follows : six ayes, one
no, and four divided. Massachusetts was amongst the latter ;
Mr. Holten and myself, ayes; Mr. Lovell and Mr. Partridge, no.
I thought it necessary to agree to this proposition, as it was
consonant to the resolution of the 15th of April ; as it would
give the States a fair opportunity of electing their ministers,
and thereby of correcting the error mentioned ; as a decision of
the question in the negative would have postponed a negotia-
tion with Spain, and for some reasons before mentioned, and
others with which I shall not trouble you. To convince you of
the necessity of this^last measure, I need only inform you, that,
before the resolution was proposed. Congress endeavored to
appoint a minister to negotiate the peace, and failed in the
attempt, there being six States for yourself, five for Mr. Jay, and
one divided. Those who were for Mr. Jay then declared they
would never alter their votes, unless they had a fair opportunity
of electing a minister for Spain, and accommodating matters to
the sense of a majority of the States, which was prevented by
the failure of a vote of the States when divided.
One word with respect to your insti'uctions. Pray give me
your opinion on the boundaries* of the Massachusetts Bay, and
if any thing is amiss, Mr. Samuel Adams, if he thinks it expe-
dient, may inform the State thereof, that they may give direc-
tions for having it rectified in Congress.
496 CORRESPONDENCE.
Cannot you attend to the settlement of the Vermont affair
on the 1st of February next, agreeably to certain resolutions
sent to Massachusetts, which, by her delegates, has claimed a
right to the jurisdiction of those lands ?
I should not have troubled you with such a volume of small
politics, did I not conceive it impracticable to weafy the patience
of a great politician. My best respects to Portia ; her irony is,
by sovereign power, turned into fact. I wish that our friend.
General Warren, may peruse this letter, and no other person at
present, as it may otherwise be the cause of my commencing
disputes which I wish to avoid. Brother Dana may correct my
information relative to your first election. Adieu, my dear
friend, with assurance of sincerity in your very humble servant,
E. Gerry.
Is not caution necessary in sending letters or papers, which
on certain occasions ought not to be communicated ? It some-
times happens that one friend is nearly sacrificed to support
another. I was on a committee which reported three thousand
pounds sterling per year for each of the ministers, and one
thousand pounds sterling per annum for each of their secreta-
ries, the salary to begin and end as prescribed by a former reso-
lution, relative to the commissioners; but I expect a reduction
of the first sum will be made by some of our patriots. I am in
favor of £2500 for the first, and of half that sum for the secre-
taries.
HENRY LAURENS TO JOHN ADAMS.
Philadelpliia, 4 October, 1779.
The receipt and perusal of your favor of the 10th ultimo
afforded me a very high satisfaction. The answer with which
you honored my letter of May, 1778, has not yet reached me.
From the earliest intelligence of your return to America, I
felt a strong disposition to wait on you with a line or two of
sincere congratulation on your happy return to your family and
American friends ; but there were certain irresistible pull-backs
CORRESPONDENCE. 497
to the intended operation. I am not addicted to commonplace
ceremony, and I perceived it extremely difficult to compose a
palatable address of blended gratulation and condolence to an
exauctorated fellow-citizen, who had deserved well of his coun-
try, and who, at the same time, stood in the most awkward
situation that an honest, susceptible mind can be reduced to.
Sent, without his own desire, and probably inconsistently with
his interest and inclination, on an embassy beyond the Atlantic,
kept unemployed, and in the course of a few months virtually
dismissed, without censure or applause, and without the least
intimation when or in what manner he was to return and report
his proceedings ; from these and other considerations I found
myself constrained to wait future events. These, though a
little clumsily brought forth, have happened as I wished ; and
now, my dear Sir, I not only congratulate you on a safe return,
but I have another opportunity of rejoicing with my country-
men on the judicious choice which Congress have made in their
late election of a minister plenipotentiary to treat — in due tifne,
be it understood — with his Britannic Majesty on peace and
commerce. The determination of Congress in this instance
will be grateful to the people of these States, and may expiate
the queernesses of some of the queerest fellows that ever were
invested with rays of sovereignty. Let me entreat you. Sir, for
my country's sake, to accept the appointment without hesita-
tion or retrospection ; you know " whereof we are made."
Wisdom and patriotism forbid exceptions on account of past
circumstances. I speak in pure truth and sincerity, and will
not risk offence by uttering a word respecting your fitness, or
peculiar or exclusive fitness for the important office ; but I will
venture to add, it is necessary you should accept and stand
ready to execute it. Your determination to do so will make
the true friends of American independence happy, and will
abate their apprehensions from incompetency or negligence in
other quarters. Not that I believe you will be directly the ob-
ject of negotiation ; the pride of our haughty enemy will lead
him to manoeuvre by mediation, and my ideas teach me to sup-
pose you are for some tjme to remain behind the curtain; but
the moment cannot be far distant, according to present appear-
ances, when you will step on the stage, and act a part productive
of substantial good to your country, of honorable fame to your-
42* po
498 CORRESPONDENCE.
self and to your posterity. My prayers and good wishes for
your success will be accompanied by the utmost exertions of
my feeble powers to insure it.
I pay no regard to the slanders of stockjobbers, monopolists,
nor any of the various tribes and classes of the enemies of our
peace. It gives me some satisfaction, however, to know that
better men think well of me ; but I draw an infinitely more solid
consolation from this knowledge, that I have uniformly striven to
persevere faithfully and disinterestedly in the service of my coun-
try. This well-founded assurance will in every event, however
untoward, calm the mind, and secure that peace, which neither
the great nor the little world can give or rob me of. I have now
no hope of embracing you corporeally on this or the other conti-
nent to which you are going ; but as a good citizen, and fellow-
laborer in the common cause, my heart will embrace you at
whatever distance we may be from each other. Be this as it
shall happen, should we be permitted to come within reach, I
tell you plainly, and 1 know you will not be displeased, I shall
prefer shaking hands in the old American style.
Should I be detained in Congress the ensuing winter, I mean
to ask leave in the spring to visit Massachusetts and New
Hampshire, as one of the last of my terrestrial peregrinations.
That journey finished, I hope the times will give rae leave to
withdraw and learn to die, a science I most devoutly wish to
enter upon with a sedulousness which the present day prohi-
bits.
Commodore Gillon's ill success in France may possibly abate
a little of his fervor for accomplishing every thing by the force
of his own powers. His expenses being fruitless, will make no
inconsiderable deduction from our Carolina finances, and I am
sorry to hear that when he returns to Charleston, he will be
asked unpleasant questions respecting his general conduct, and
Don Juan de Miralles complains heavily of one of his trans-
actions at Havana. These are things of no immediate concern
to you, nor would it be instructive to say, it is difficult to judge
of men from appearances.
I wish I had time to speak of the awful state of our national
debt and credit : the field is too wide for the compass of a letter;
but believe me, Sir, while we are decorating our fabric, we are
censurably careless of the foundation. Censure, if ever it comes.
CORRESPONDENCE. 499
will not light wholly on those whom the pious Duffield calls
"the great council of these States." Each State, at too late a
day, will find cause to apply blame to itself. We are at this
moment on the brink of a precipice, and what I have long
dreaded and often intimated to my friends, seems to be break-
ing forth — a convulsion among the people. Yesterday produced
a bloody scene in the streets of this city ; ^ the particulars you
will probably learn from other friends ; and from circumstances
which have come to my knowledge this morning, there are
grounds for apprehending much more confusion. The enemy
has been industriously sapping our fort, and we, gazing and
frolicking; peradventure we, meaning every State, may improve
the present alarm to good purpose ; but what shall we do by
and by, and not far distant, for quieting a hungry and naked
army? Shall we call forth a grand convention in aid of the
great council ? This may become absolutely necessary.
I will presume on your kindness and friendship to trouble
you by the next post with a packet for my friends in Europe,
and no further in the mean time, but to subscribe with great
truth, dear Sir, your faithful, obliged, and affectionate friend
and servant,
Henry Laurens.
TO JAMES LOVELL.
Braintree, 17 October, 1779.
And what, my dear sir, shall I say to your favors of the 27th
and 28th of September, which came by the last post ? The
unanimity of my election surprises me, as much as the delicacy,
importance, and danger of the trust distress me. The appoint-
ment of Mr. Dana to be Secretary pleases me more than my
own to be minister, commissioner, negotiator, call it what you
will. I have communicated to him your letters in confidence,
and all other material intelligence I had, and hope he will not
decline ; but you know the peculiarities of his situation, and if
he should refuse, I hope you will not force your name out of
nomination again. I did not suppose that such characters
1 This alludes to the " Fort Wilson riot," a full account of which is given iu
Reed's Life of Reed, vol. ii. pp. 149-152, and in the Appendix.
500 CORRESPONDENCE.
would be willing to go as secretaries, because I did not know
your plan, otherwise I should not have mentioned Mr. Jenings
to Mr. Gerry for one to Dr. Franklin. Your mastery of the
language, and your indefatigability, would make you infinitely
useful in any of these departments.
1 rejoice that you produced my letter to the Count de Ver-
gennes and his answer, before the choice, because it contained a
testimony in favor of Mr. Lee, which was his due.^ I am very
much affected at his recall, because I know his merit, and,
therefore, I am glad I was not placed in his stead; for suspicions
would have arisen, and reflections would have been cast upon
me, as having favored his removal in order to make room,
which I certainly did not. I am infinitely obliged to you for
these letters, and for that received the post before last ; but I
really tremble for your health. Let me entreat you, for the sake
of our country, to take care of it. If I was to apply myself, as
you do, I should soon go to study politics in another sphere.
Yet I am so selfish as to beg the continuance of your favors to
me, and I pledge myself to you, I will not be in debt any more
than may be made by the intrinsic difference in the value of the
letters, which will be unavoidable.
Thank you for the extract from Mr. Izard's letter. I am not
a little surprised at its contents. It was written, I see, to his
friend, and I suppose intended in confidence. I am fully per-
suaded he did not intend that the whole should have been laid
before Congress.^ I utterly deny that I ever used to him any
such language as the indecent paragraph that closes what he
says about me. Indeed, that is manifestly his own inference,
and in his own words, from what he says he had heard me say,
and he draws the same from what Dr. Franklin and Mr. Deane
had said upon the same subject. I further deny that I ever
threatened him with the displeasure of Congress, for writing his
opinion concerning these articles to Congress, or for suggesting
them to the commissioners. But to enter into all the conversa-
tions that have passed between Mr. Izard and me respecting
those articles, and many other points, in order to give a full
and fair representation of those conversations, would fill a small
volume. Yet, there never was any angry^or rude conversation
' See vol. vii. pp. 79, 80.
2 See the Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution, vol. ii. p. 434.
CORRESPONDENCE. 501
between him and me, that I can recollect. I lived with him
on good terms, visited him and he me, dined with his family,
and his family with me, and I ever told him, and repeated it
often, that I should be always obliged to him for his advice,
opinions, and sentiments upon any American subject, and that
I should always give it its due weight, although I did not think
myself bound to follow it any further than it seemed to me to
be just. As Congress have declined giving me the charges
against me by their authority, and have, upon the whole, acquit-
ted me with so much splendor, it would look like a littleness of
soul in me to make myself anxious, or give them any further
trouble about it. And as I have in general so good an opinion
of Mr. Izard's attachment to his country, and of his honor, I
shall not think myself bound to take any further notice of this
fruit of his inexperience in public life, this peevish ebullition of
the rashness of his temper. I have written a few other obser-
vations to Mr. Gerry on the same subject. You and he will
compare these with them for your private satisfaction, but be
sure that they are not exposed where they will do harm to the
public, to Mr. Izard, or me, unnecessarily.
If I should go abroad, cannot you lend me twenty or thirty
complete sets of the journals? They are much wanted in
Europe. A set of them is a genteel present, and perhaps would
do me and the public more service than you are aware of. If
Congress, or some committee, would order it, I should be very
glad.
TO JAMES I.OVELL.
Braintree, 25 October, 1779.
Mr. Joshua Johnson is a merchant, settled with his lady and
family at Nantes. I was honored with many of his civilities in
that city, and with a good deal of his conversation. He is a
sensible, genteel man, has a good character, and, I believe, is as
well qualified for the service you mention as any American
now in Europe. His affections, sentiments, and acquaintances
are supposed to be on a particular side; but I believe his con-
duct has been prudent and unexceptionable.
502 CORRESPONDENCE.
The French frigate would be as agreeable a conveyance for
me as I wish. I should be very sorry to delay her. I do not
expect to have much direct negotiation for some time; but I
do expect a great deal of indirect, round-about, and very ridicu-
lous mancEuvring. If I go at all, I had rather go without
delay, because I hate a state of suspense, and in my present
situation I can engage in no other business, public or private.
I was running fast into my old profession ; but this will put a
total stop to it, for, being uncertain when I shall go, I cannot
undertake any man's business and give him my word to go
throiigh with it.
If Dana should not go, you will find that Bancroft will be set
up ; but I think you would certainly carry it, and you may
depend upon it, no man would make me happier. Dana, how-
ever, will accept. He spent yesterday with me, and I am per-
suaded he will go.
I will inform A. L. by the first opportunity. He cannot be
delayed.i He not only had power to borrow money, but has, I
believe, considerable sums in his hands from Spain. Spain has
sent him from time to time large sums, and she will continue to
supply Mr. Jay, so that he will have no trouble. I shall be in a
different predicament. You are mistaken about the English.
There is no money to be got there ; small sums may be bor-
rowed in France or in Amsterdam. So that I wish to be fur-
nished with full powers to borrow. But I beg one favor more,
and that is for an order to draw, in case of necessity and in
case other resources fail, on Dr. Frankhn or on the banker of
the United States, for a sum not exceeding my salary yearly, and
also for a resolution of Congress, or a letter from the commer-
cial committee, requesting the continental agents in Europe and
America to furnish me aids and supplies of cash, &c., and to the
captains of all American frigates to afford me a passage out or
home upon demand, so as not to interfere with other orders they
may have, however, or prevent their cruising, I to pay for my pas-
sage to Congress, or be accountable for it. Mr. Dana should have
the same resolution of Congress, and letter from the commercial
1 Mr. Lovell had written thus : —
" Pray miss no possible chance to inform A. L." (Arthur Lee) " of what has
happened. It may reach him before an authenticated account by Mr. Jay, and
be a warnint; to take his measures. He can have no accounts to cause delay ;
and as he has power to borrow money, he cannot be obliged to apply to F— .'
CORRESPONDENCE. 503
and marine committee, one from each for each of us, and per-
haps the same to Mr. Jay and Mr. Carmichael. I hope I shall
find the funds provided for me sufficient; but if I should not, I
may be in the utmost distress, and bring upon myself and you
disgrace. Franklin will supply me, and so will any agent in
France, if they have a resolution of Congress, or even a letter
from the commercial committee.
I do not know what indecencies you mean in my commis-
sion. I have looked it up, and have it before me. It is on a
large sheet of paper, written very well, all in the handwriting
of our much respected secretary, signed by President Laurens,
sealed with his seal, and attested by the secretary. It is not
upon vellum, nor parchment, it is true, and the paper is not the
best, but I believe as good as any we had at that time. Upon
the whole, I think it a very decent, respectable, and honorable
commission. It was treated with great respect at Versailles,
and I see no reason to object to it. Pray let me know what the
question is about it.^
TO HENRY LAURENS.
Braintree, 25 October, 1779.
My dear Sir, — Your favor of the 4th of this month gave
me great pleasure ; but I am afraid that you and some others
of my friends felt more for me in the awkward situation you
mention than I did for myself, though I cannot say that I was
wholly insensible. I could not help laughing a little, at the
figure I cut, to be sure. I could compare it to nothing but
Shakspeare's idea of Ariel, wedged by the waist in the middle
of a rifted oak, for I was sufficiently sensible that it was owing
to an unhappy division in Congress, and pains enough were
taken to inform me, that one side were for sending me to Spain
and the other to Holland, so that I was flattered to find that
1 Mr. Lovell's style is always enigmatical, and indicative of his eccentric
mind. The following is the passage alluded to : —
" You will have a decent commission this time. I wish I could see your old
one ; as do the secretary and Mr. Laurens, between whom thei-e have been
formal proceedings in-doors respecting some indecencies of the former."
Mr. Adams sailed for Europe before this letter could receive an answer.
504 CORRESPONDENCE.
neither side had any decisive objection against trusting me, and
that the apparent question was only where. But I assure you,
that all my sprawling, wriggling, and brandishing my legs and
arms in the air, like Ariel, never gave me half the pain, that the
picture of Congress excited at that time in my imagination.
When I saw a certain appeal to the people, that no animadversion
was made on it, that you resigned, &c.. Congress appeared to me
to resemble a picture in the gallery of the Count de Vergennes,
and I trembled for the union and safety of the States. The
picture is of a coach, with four horses running down a steep
mountain and rushing on to the middle of a very high bridge
over a very large river. The foundations of the bridge give
way, and the carriage, the horses, the timbers, stones, and all,
in a chaos are falling through the air down to the water. The
horror of the horses, the coachman, the footmen, the gentlemen
and ladies in the carriage, are strongly painted in their counte-
nances and gestures, as well as the sympathy and terror in
those of persons at a distance in boats upon the river, and many
others on the shore on each side of the river.
That I was sent without the least solicitation of mine, directly
or indirectly, is certainly true ; and I had such formidable ideas
of the sea and of British men-of-war, such diffidence in my own
qualifications to do service in that way, and such uncertainty
of the reception I should meet, that I had little inclination to
adventure. That I went against my interest is most undoubt-
edly so, for I^ never yet served the public without losing by it.
I was not, however, as you suppose, kept^nemployed. I had
business enough to do, as I could easily convince you. There
is a great field of business there, and I could easily show you
that I did my share of it. There is so much to do, and so
much difficulty to do it well, that I am rejoiced to find a gentle-
man of such abilities, principles, and activity, as Colonel Laurens
undoubtedly is, without a compliment, appointed to assist in it.^
I most sincerely hope for his friendship, and an entire harmony
with him, for which reason I should be very happy in his com-
pany in the passage, or in an interview with him as soon as
possible in Europe. He will be in a delicate situation, but not
so much so as I was ; and plain sense, honest intentions, and
1 Colonel John Laurens had been made Secretary to the minister plenipoten-
tiaiy in France.
CORRESPONDENCE. 505
common civility will, I think, be sufficient to secure him, and do
much good.
Your kind compliments on my safe return and most honor-
able reelection are very obliging. I have received no commis-
sion, nor instructions, nor any particular information of the
plan ; but from the advice and information from you and several
other of my friends at Philadelphia and here, I shall make no
hesitation to say, that, notwithstanding the delicacy and danger
of this commission, I suppose I shall accept it without delay
and trust events to Heaven, as I have been long used to do.
It is a pain to me to be deprived of the pleasure of shaking
hands with you at the foot of Penn's hill, eleven miles from
Boston, where lives a lady however, who desires me to present
her best respects, and ask the favor of a visit when you come to
Boston, that she may have an opportunity of seeing a gentle-
man whose unshaken constancy does so much honor and such
essential service to his country.
The convulsions at Philadelphia are very affecting and alarm-
ing, but not entirely unexpected to me. The state of parties
and the nature of their government have a long time given me
disagreeable apprehensions. But I hope they will find some
remedy. Methods will be found to feed the army, but I know
of none to clothe it without convoys to trade, which Congress,
I think, will do well to undertake, and persuade France and
Spain to undertake, as soon as possible. Your packets for
your friends in Europe will give me pleasure, and shall be for-
warded with care and despatch.
TO ELBRIDGE GERRY.
Braintree, 4 November, 1779.
Yours of October 12th has been seven days by me. Am
happy to learn my accounts and vouchers arrived safe by Mr.
Lowell. I know not how the Board will explain the three
months after notice of recall, as applied to me. If they were to
allow three months after my arrival, it would be no more than
just. Mr. Dana, I presume, will accept, and sail with me in a
few days.
VOL. IX. ■^^
506 CORRESPONDENCE.
I am clear for three branches in the legislature, and the com-
mittee have reported as much, though awkwardly expressed. I
have considered this question in every light in which my under-
standing is capable of placing it, and my opinion is decided in
favor of three branches; and being very unexpectedly called
upon to give my advice to my countrymen concerning a form
of government, I could not answer it to myself, to them, or
posterity, if I concealed or disguised ray real sentiments.^ They
have been received with candor, but perhaps will not be adopted.
In such a State as this, however, I am persuaded we never shall
have any stability, dignity, decision, or liberty without it. We
have so many men of wealth, of ambitious spirits, of intrigue,
of luxury and corruption, that incessant factions will disturb our
peace without it, and, indeed, there is too much reason to fear,
with it. The executive, which ought to be the reservoir of
wisdom, as the legislative is of liberty, without this weapon of
defence,^ will be run down like a hare before the hunters. But
I have not time to enlarge.
I am more solicitous about the means of procuring the salary
you mention than the sura of it. I can make it do, if I can
get it. But I wish I had power to borrow money, and also
power to draw upon Dr. Franklin, or the American banker, in
case of necessity. I should get it in that way. Mr. Jay Mali
have no difficulty, for Spain will undoubtedly furnish him, as
they did Mr. Lee, who, I believe, but ara not certain, has some
Spanish money remaining in his hands. I know not how
much, and may be mistaken in supposing he has any.
^^ou think my appointment ought not to be divulged ; but it
was public in Boston and in every body's mouth upon 'Change,
before 1 heard a lisp of it. If it is generally approved, I am
happy. Happy and blessed indeed shall I be, if I can accom-
plish ray errand, and give general satisfaction in the end !
Let rae beseech you, by every feeling of friendship as well
as patriotism, to continue your favors, and transmit me the
journals, newspapers, pamphlets, as well as your advice, from
time to time. My importance in that country will depend much
upon the intelligence that shall be sent rae by ray friends, raore
1 This allusion is to the speech made soon after the opening of the convention
of Massachusetts, by Mr. Adams, and spoken of by Dr. Gordon and Judge
Dawes, but no trace of which is preserved. See vol. iv. p. 216, note.
- A negative upon the laws. See vol. iv. p. 231, note.
CORRESPONDENCE. 507
than you can imagine. If you intend I shall do you any good,
keep me constantly informed of every thing; the numbers and
destinations of the army, the state of finance, the temper of the
people, military operations ; the state and the prospects of the
harvests, the prices of goods, the price of bills of exchange,
the rate between silver and paper. Nothing can come amiss.
The growth or decline of the navy, the spirit and success of
privateers, the number of prizes, the number, position, exertions,
and designs of the enemy.
Your election comes on this month, and it is sure. I wish I
was as sure of getting safe to France.
God bless you I
TO BENJAMIN RUSH.
Braiutree, 4 November, 1779.
Your favors of October 12th and 19th are before me. I
should not have left the first unanswered seven days, if it had
not been for my new trade of a Constitution monger. I inclose
a pamphlet as my apology. It is only a report of a committee,
and will be greatly altered, no doubt. If the committee had
boldly made the legislature consist of three branches, I should
have been better pleased. But I cannot enlarge upon this sub-
ject.
I am pained in my inmost soul at the unhappy aflfair at
Colonel Wilson's house. I think there ought to be an article
in the declaration of rights of every State, securing freedom of
speech, impartiality, and independence at the bar. There is
nothing on which the rights of every member of society more
depend. There is no man so bad but he ought to have a fair
trial, and an equal chance to obtain the ablest counsel, or the
advocate of his choice, to see that he has fair play, and the
benefit of truth and law.
Do not be discouraged, you will yet find liberty a charming
substance. I wish I had Leonidas.^ Cannot you send it after
me ? Thank you for your congratulations on my new and
* An article signed with this name, written by Dr. Rush, and published in
Dunlap's paper at Philadelphia.
508 CORRESPONDENCE.
most honorable appointment; honorable indeed, if it is possible
for mortals to honor mortals. I am honored with an honor,
however, that makes me tremble. Pray help me, by correspond-
ing constantly with me, and sending me all the pamphlets,
journals, news, &c., to a little success as well as honor.
Your congratulations on the Count d'Estaing's operations
are conceived in terms flattering enough. I will please myself
with the thought that I had some share in bringing him here.
If he only liberates Georgia and Rhode Island, which is already
done, it is a great success ; but I promise you, although I go to
make peace, yet, if the old lady Britannia will not let me do
that, I will do all I can in character to sustain the war, and
direct it in a sure course. I must be prudent in this, however,
which I fear is not enough my characteristic ; but I flatter my-
self I am rather growing in this grace. And in this spirit I
think, that although we have had provocations enough to excite
the warmest passions against Great Britain, yet it is both our
duty to silence all resentments in our deliberations about peace,
and attend only to our interests and our engagements with our
allies.
Nothing ever gives me so much pleasure as to hear of har-
mony in Congress. Upon this depend our union, strength,
prosperity, and glory. If the late appointments give satisfac-
tion, I am happy, and if the liberties and independence of our
country are not safe in my hands, you may swear it is for want
of brains and not of heart The appointment of Mr. Dana could
not be mended. He will go, and I shall be happy. You have
given me pain by your account of the complaints against the
director.^ I am sorry, very sorry !
What will you say, if I should turn your thoughts from
politics to philosophy ? What do you think of Dr. Franklin's
theory of colds ? He is fixed in the opinion that we never take
cold from the cold air, and wants the experiments of Sanctorius
tried over again. Suppose you should make a statical chair,
and try whether perspiration is most copious in a warm bed, or
stark naked in the open air. I assure you, these branches of
physics come within the circle of the sciences of the statesman;
for an unlucky cold, which I have been much subject to all my
' Of the Hospitals. The allusion is to Dr. Shippen,and to the difficulties that
took place between him and Dr. Morgan.
CORRESPONDENCE. 509
days, may stop him in his career, and dash all his schemes ; and
it is a poor excuse to say he foresaw and provided against every
event but his own sickness.
My partner, whose tender health and numerous family will
not permit her to make me as happy as Mr. Jay, joins with me
in the kindest compliments to you and Mrs. Rush. Adieu !
TO EDMUND JENINGS.
Amsterdam, 23 September, 1780.
I have received your favor, written after your return from
Spa, and am very glad you had so pleasant a tour, and found
so agreeable a reception.
I find that my friend in Philadelphia reprinted the letters on
the spirit and resources of Great Britain, after which they were
again printed in Boston, and much admired. A gentleman
from Boston tells me he heard there that they were written by
one ^Ir. Jenings. I wish his countrymen knew more than they
do about that same Mr. Jenings.
/ I take a vast satisfaction in the general approbation of the
Massachusetts Constitution. If the people are as wise and
honest in the choice of their rulers as they have been in framing
a government, they will be happy, and I shall die content with
the prospect for my children, who, if they cannot be w^ell under
such a form and such an administration, will not deserve to be
at all.
I wish the translation might appear as soon as possible,
because it may have some effects here.^ It certainly will ; for
there are many persons here attentive to such things in English,
whether in pamphlets or newspapers. I wish it was published
in a pamphlet, and I could get a dozen of them. I begin to be
more fond of propagating things in English, because the people,
the most attentive to our affairs, read English, and I wish to in-
crease the curiosity after that language and the students in it.
You must know I have undertaken to prophesy that English
will be the most respectable language in the world, and the
^ A translation into French of Governor Pownall's Memorial to the Sovereigns
of Europe. See vol. vii. p. 248, note.
43*
510 CORKESPONDENCE.
most universally read and spoken, in the next century, if not
before the close of this. American population will in -the next
age produce a greater number of persons who will speak Eng-
lish than any other language, and these persons will have more
general acquaintance and conversation with all other nations
than any other people, which will naturally introduce their lan-
guage everywhere, as the general medium of correspondence
and conversation among the learned of all nations, and among
all travellers and strangers, as Latin was in the last century,
and French has been in this. Let us, then, encourage and
advise every body to study English.
I have written to Congress a serious request, that they would
appoint an academy for refining, correcting, improving, and ascer-
taining the English language.^ After Congress shall have done
it, perhaps the British king and parliament may have the honor
of copying the example. This I should admire. England will
never have any more honor, excepting now and then that of
imitating the Americans.
I assure you. Sir, I am not altogether in jest. I see a general
inclination after English in France, Spain, and Holland, and it
may extend throughout Europe. The population and com-
merce of America will force their language into general use.
TO JONATHAN JACKSON.
Amsterdam, 2 October, 1780.
I have long had it in contemplation to pay my respects to
you, but a wandering life and various avocations have hitherto
prevented.
I am very happy to find that our labors in convention were
not in vain. The Constitution, as finished by the convention
and accepted by the people, is publishing in all the public
papers of Europe, the r&port of the committee having been
published before. Both have been treated with much respect
both in Europe and in the other States of America. The noble
simplicity of your address to the people is much admired. The
' See vol. vii. p. 249.
CORRESPONDENCE. 511
substitute for the Governor's negative is generally thought an
amelioration, and I must confess it is so widely guarded that it
has quite reconciled me.
I want to hear of the elections. If these are made with as
much gravity, sobriety, wisdom, and integrity as were discovered
in the convention and among the people, in the whole course
of this great work, posterity will be happy and prosperous. The
first citizen will be one of two whom we know. Whichever it
may be, I wish him support and success. It is no light trust.
However ambitious any may be of it, whoever obtains this
distinction, if he does his duty, will find it a heavy burden.
There are, however, other great trusts. The Governor's office
will be rendered more or less useful, according to the characters
that compose the Senate and the Council. If the people are
as prudent in the choice of these as they were in the choice of
the convention, let the Governor be almost what he will, he will
not be able to do much harm ; he will be necessitated to do
right.
There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the
republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader,
and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in
my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest poli-
tical evil under our Constitution. We cannot have a bad
Governor at present. We may not possibly have the best that
might be found, but we shall have a good one ; one who means
to do no evil to his country, but as much good as he can.
The convention I shall ever recollect with veneration. Among
other things, for bringing me acquainted with several characters
that I knew little of before, of which number Mr. Jackson is one.
I shall be much honored, Sir, if you would be so good as to
write me the state of things. There are more opportunities
from your port to Spain and Holland, I think, than from any
other.
TO JAMES WARREN.
The Hague, 17 June, 1782.
Broken to pieces and worn out with the diseases engendered
by the tainted atmosphere of Amsterdam operating upon the
512 CORRESPONDENCE.
effects of fatiguing journeys, dangerous voyages, a variety of
climates, and eternal anxiety of mind, I have not been able to
write you so often as 1 wished ; but now I hope the fine season
and the pure air of the Hague will restore me. Perhaps you
will say that the air of a Court is as putrid as that of Am-
sterdam. In a moral and political sense, perhaps; but I am
determined that the bad morals and false politics of other people
shall no longer affect my repose of mind nor disturb my physi-
cal constitution. What is it to me, after having done all I can
to set them right, whether other people go to heaven or to the
devil ? I may howl and weep, but this will have no effect. I
may then just as well sing and laugh.
Pray, how do you like your new allies the Dutch ? Does
your imagination rove into futurity, and speculate and combine
as it used to do ? It is a pretty amusement to play a game
with nations as if they were fox and geese, or coins upon a
checker-board, or the personages at chess, is it not? It is, how-
ever, the real employment of a statesman to play such a game
sometimes ; a sublime one, truly ; enough to make a man
serious, however addicted to sport. Politics are the divine
science, after all. How is it possible that any man should ever
think of making it subservient to his own little passions and
mean private interests ? Ye baseborn sons of fallen Adam,
is the end of politics a fortune, a family, a gilded coach, a train
of horses, and a troop of livery servants, balls at Court, splendid
dinners and suppers? Yet the divine science of politics is at
length in Europe reduced to a mechanical system composed of
these materials. What says the muse, Mrs. Warren ?
What is to become of an independent statesman, one who
will bow the knee to no idol, who will worship nothing as a
divinity but truth, virtue, and his country? I will tell you; he
will be regarded more by posterity than those who worship
hounds and horses ; and although he will not make his own
fortune, he will make the fortune of his country. The liberties
of Corsica, Sweden, and Geneva may be overturned, but neither
his character can be hurt, nor his exertions rendered ineffectual.
Oh peace! when wilt thou permit me to visit Penns-hill, Milton-
hill, and all the blue hills ? I love every tree and every rock
upon all those mountains. Roving among these, and the quails,
partridges, squirrels, &c., that inhabit them, shall be the amuse-
CORRESPONDENCE. 513
ment of my declining years. God willing, I will nof go to
Vermont.! I must be within the scent of the sea.
I hope to send along a treaty in two or three months. I love
the Dutchmen with all their faults. There is a strong spirit of
liberty among them, and many excellent qualities. Next year
their navy will be so strong as to be able to do a great deal.
They may do something this.
I am going to Court to sup with princes, princesses, and
ambassadors. I had rather sup with you at one of our hills,
though I have no objection to supping at Court. Adieu !
TO JAMES AVARREN.
The Hague, 6 September, 1782.
Dear Sir, — I thank you for the papers and your card of
July 22d. The letters inclosed I shall send along. My friends
have all become as tender of me as you are, and, to save me
trouble, send me no letters, so I know nothing about you. I
hope you have not been all sick, as I have been. I hope you
have not all quite so much business as I have to do. At least,
I hope it is to better effect, and to more profit both public and
private. To negotiate a loan of money, to sign the obligations
for it, to make a thousand visits, some idle, some not idle, all
necessary, to write treaties in English, and be obliged to have
them translated into French and Dutch, and to reason and
discuss every article to — to — to — to — to — &c., &c., &c., is
too much for my patience and strength. My correspondence
with Congress and their ministers in Europe is a great deal of
work ; in short, I am weary, and nobody pities me. Nobody
seems to know any thing about me. Nobody knows that I do
any thing or have any thing to do. One thing, thank God, is
certain. I have planted the American standard at the Hague.
There let it wave and fly in triumph over Sir Joseph Yorke and
British pride. I shall look down upon the flagstaff with plea-
sure from the other world.
1 Mrs. Adams during his absence had purchased wild lands in Vermont, and
G2
had suggested a removal at some future time.
514 CORRESPONDENCE.
Not the declaration of American independence, not the Mas-
sachusetts Constitution, not the alliance with France, ever gave
me more satisfaction or more pleasing prospects for our country
than this event. It is a pledge against friends and enemies. It
is an eternal barrier against all dangers from the house of
Bourbon as well as a present security against England. Per-
haps every imagination does not rove into futurity as much as
mine, nor care so much about it.
TO JONATHAN JACKSON.
Paris, 17 November, 1782.
SiRj — Upon my arrival here, I found Mr. Jay in very deli-
cate health, in the midst of great affairs, and without a clerk.
He told me he had scarcely strength to draw up a state of
the negotiation hitherto, but that he must do it for Congress.
I offered him the assistance that Mr. Thaxter could afford him
in copying, which he accepted.
Mr. Jay, as well as Dr. Franklin and myself, are exceedingly
embarrassed by some of our instructions. The other gentlemen
will speak for themselves.
No man has a higher sense than I have of the obligation of
instructions given by the principal to a deputy. It is a point
of duty to observe them. A French minister has only to ascend
a pair of stairs to propose a doubt, to offer reasons, to lay open
facts for the advice or the orders of his master and his councils ;
a Spanish, Dutch, or English ambassador has only to send a
courier, and receive an answer in a few days. But we are at a
vast distance. Despatches are opened, vessels are taken, and
the difficulties of communication are innumerable. Facts,
unknown when instructions were given, turn up ; whole systems
of policy appear in a striking light, which were not suspected.
Yet the time presses, all Europe waits, and we must act. In
such a case, I know of no other rule than to construe instruc-
tions, as we do all other precepts and maxims, by such limita-
tions, restrictions, and exceptions, as reason, necessity, and the
nature of things point out.
CORRESPONDENCE. 515
When I speak of this Court, I know not that any other
minister is included but that of foreign affairs. A whole system
of policy is now as glaring as the day, which, perhaps, Congress
and the people of America have little suspicion of. The evi-
dence now results from a large view of all our European nego-
tiations. The same principle and the same system has been
uniformly pursued from the beginning of my knowledge of our
affairs in Europe, in April, 1778, to this hour; it has been pur-
sued in France, in Spain, in Holland, in Russia, and even in
England. In substance it has been this ; in assistance afforded
us in naval force and in money, to keep us from succumbing,
and nothing more ; to prevent us from ridding ourselves wholly
of our enemies; to prevent us from growing powerful or rich ; to
prevent us from obtaining acknowledgments of our independ-
ence by other foreign powers, and to prevent us from obtaining
consideration in Europe, or any advantage in the peace but
what is expressly stipulated in the treaty ; to deprive us of the
grand fishery, the Mississippi River, the western lands, and to
saddle us with the tories. To this end, by all I have learned
of Mr. Dana's negotiations in Russia, Mr. Jay's in Spain, and
my own in Holland, it is evident to me that the Comte de
Montmorin, the Marquis do Verac, and the Duke de la Vau-
guyon, have been governed by the same instructions ; to wit,
instead of favoring, to prevent, if possible, our success. In
Holland, I can speak with knowledge, and I declare that he did
every thing in his power to prevent me, and that 1 verily believe
he had instructions so to do, perhaps only from the minister,
until I had declared to him, that no advice of his, or the Comte
de Vergennes, nor even a requisition from the king should
restrain me ; and, when he found that I was a man not to be
managed, that I was determined, and was as good as my word,
and, further, thought I should succeed, he fell in with me,
in order to give the air of French influence to measures that
French influence never could have accomplished, and which,
he thought, would be carried, even if he opposed them. This
instance is the stronger, as the Duke is an excellent character,
and the man I wish to meet everywhere in the affairs of France
and America.
I must go further, and say that the least appearance of an
independent spirit in any American minister has been uniformly
516 CORRESPONDENCE.
cause enough to have his character attacked. Luckily, Mr.
Deane out of the question, every American minister in Europe,
except Dr. Franklin, has discovered a judgment, a conscience,
and a resolution of his own, and, of consequence, every minister
that has ever come, has been frowned upon. On the contrary,
Dr. Franklin, who has been pliant and submissive in every
thing, has been constantly cried up to the stars, without doing
any thing to deserve it.
These facts may alarm Congress more than they ought. There
is nothing to fear but the want of firmness in Congress. French
policy is so subtle, penetrating, and enervating a thing, that the
only way to oppose it, is to be steady, patient, and determined.
Poland and Sweden, as well as Corsica and Geneva, exhibit
horrid effects of this policy, because it was yielded to ; whereas
Switzerland, who never was afraid of France, and was always
firm, has found her an excellent ally for one hundred and fifty
years. If we are steadily supported by Congress, we will go
clearly to the windward of them; but if Congress wavers and
gives way, the United States will receive a blow that they will
not recover in fifty years.
The affair of the refugees, I think, will divide us from the
English at present, and precisely because the English are en-
couraged to insist upon a compensation by this Court; if it
depended on my vote, I would cut this knot at once. I would
compensate the wretches, how little soever they deserve it, nay,
how much soever they deserve the contrary. I foresee we shall
be prevented by it from agreeing with Britain now, and be in-
trigued into the measure at last, and that by this Court.
We have nothing to fear from this Court but in the particu-
lars above mentioned. The alliance is too necessary to them,
we are too essential to them, for them to violate the treaties, or
finally disgust and alienate us. But they have not known, any
more than England, the men with whom they have to do. A
man and his office were never better united than Mr. Jay and
the commission for peace. Had he been detained in Madrid, as
I was in Holland, and all left to Franklin, as was wished, all
would have been lost. If he is not supported in Congress, we
will both come home together, and see if we cannot have better
luck by word of mouth than we have had by letter, to convince
our countrymen. The thanks of Congress ought, in sound
CORRESPONDENCE. 517
policy and in perfect justice, to be given to Mr. Jay for his able
and faithful execution of his trust both in Spain and for peace.
When we see the French intriguing with the English against
us, we have no way to oppose it but by reasoning with the
English to show that they are intended to be the dupes. In-
closed are a few broken minutes of conversations, which were
much more extended and particular than they appear upon
paper. I submit them to your discretion.^
I am amazed to see New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and
Delaware, where I find them sometimes, in the yeas and nays.
Those gentlemen and their States mean well, but are deceived.
TO ARTHUR LEE.
Paris, 12 April, 1783.
Congress forced us into a situation, which obliged us to ven-
ture upon a piece of indiscipline, in order to secure a tolerable
peace, so that you may well suppose we are anxious to know
how it is received among you, and what is to be our fate ;
whether we are to be approved, excused, justified, or censured.
The most curious and inexplicable part of the history is Frank-
lin's joining in the mutiny. You who know him will not be
at a loss to account for it. In truth, the necessity was too
obvious and glaring, and the cod, and bucks, and beavers were
animals too dearly beloved in our country for a man to take
upon himself to be responsible for the loss of them.
We have had a very dull pause since the peace. No news
from America, and a stagnation in England, which has left us
in a painful state of uncertainty. Now, indeed, the ministry is
arranged for a little while, and Mr. Hartley is expected over to
finish the negotiation. You know him ; he is talkative and dis-
putatious, and not always intelligible, so that I expect we shall
be longer about the business than is necessary.
I am not able to conceive how a ministry, composed of parts
so heterogeneous, can go on with business. It cannot be ex-
pected to be solid and durable. Mr. Fox professes to mean to
finish soon and liberally ; but I know not what opposition and
1 This alludes to the extracts from the Diary. See vol. iii. p. 349, note.
VOL. IX. 44
518 CORRESPONDENCE.
contradiction he may meet in the cabinet. I confess I do not
like the change at all. Shelburne and his set would have gone
through well. Mr. Laurens, who is in London, seems pleased
with the change, at least he was with the prospect a few days
before it took place, and he seems to think that the tories are
not so much regarded as we feared.
Shelburne did the best thing of his whole life when he
made peace, and the vote against him does no honor to his
opponents. The peace is really much better for England than
she had a right to expect, and the continuance of the war would
have been ruin. This the present set are sensible of, but truth
is a small sacrifice to faction. The vote of dissatisfaction with
the peace is a disagreeable event, and one knows not what
effects it may have. I do not believe it could ever have been
carried, if 'a treaty of commerce had been signed on the 30th of
November. Why the commission for making such a treaty
was revoked without issuing another, you must ask Mr. Mar-
bois. I know not. I think, however, you cannot too soon send
a minister to London to arrange finally a system of commerce,
and to watch over all your interests in that country. French
politics are now incessantly at work in England, and we may
depend upon it they labor less for our good than their own. If
our interests were the same with theirs, we might better trust
them ; yet not entirely, for they do not understand their own
interests so well as we do ours.
Congress will never adopt a right system of foreign affairs
until they consider their interests as distinct, and keep them
separate, from those of all other nations. One essential part of
the business and duty of their ministers is to watch French poli-
ticians as well as English, to cooperate with them where they
coincide with our system, and to counteract them where they
interfere with it. At least, this has ever been my opinion. It
was so when I was in Congress in 1775, 1776, and 1777, and
every day's experience in Europe, in every country, in every
department, has afforded something in confirmation of it. I
have acted in conformity to it, at every risk, and, considering
the furious wrath it has occasioned, and the violent efforts to
demolish me, with wonderful success. But the success would
have been much more complete, if Congress had adhered to the
system as steadily as I did.
CORRESPONDENCE. 519
SAMUEL ADAMS TO JOHN ADAMS.
Boston, 4 November, 1783.
Colonel John Trumbull, the son of the worthy Governor of
Connecticut, is the bearer of this letter. I give the Governor
this epithet, because I think his faithful services to our country
entitle him to it. Yet even he has undergone the suspicions
of some, unsupported by any solid reasons that I have heard of.
We live in an age of jealousy, and it is well enough. I was
led to believe in early life that jealousy is a political virtue. It
has long been an aphorism with me, that it is one of the greatest
securities of public liberty. Let the people keep a watchful eye
over the conduct of their rulers, for we are told that great men
are not at all times wise. It would be indeed a wonder, if in
any age or country they were always honest. There are, how-
ever, some men among us, who, under the guise of watchful
patriots, are finding fault with every public measure, with a
design to destroy that just confidence in government, which is
necessary for the support of those liberties, which we have so
dearly purchased. Many of your countrymen, besides myself,
feel very grateful to you, and those of our negotiators who
joined you, in preventing the tory refugees from being obtruded
upon us. These would certainly have increased the number of
such kind oi patriots as I have mentioned, and, besides, their re-
turn would have been attended with other mischievous effects.
Mutual hatred and revenge would have occasioned perpetual
quarrels between them and the people, and perhaps frequent
bloodshed. Some of them, by art and address, might gradually
recover a character, and, in time, an influence, and so become
the fittest instruments in forming factions either for one foreign
nation or another. We may be in danger of such factions, and
should prudently expect them. One might venture to predict
that they will, sooner or later, happen. We should therefore
guard against the evil effects of them. I deprecate the most
favored nation predominating in the councils of America, for I
do not believe there is a nation on earth that wishes we should
be more free or more powerful than is consistent with their
ideas of their own interest. Such a disinterested spirit is not
to be found in national bodies; the world would be more happy
520 CORRESPONDENCE.
if it prevailed more in individual persons. I will say it for my
countrymen, they are, or seem to be, very grateful. All are
ready freely to acknowledge our obligations to France, for the
part she took in our late contest. There are a few who con-
sider the advantage derived to her by a total separation of Bri-
tain and the colonies, which so sagacious a court doubtless
foresaw and probably never lost sight of. This advantage was
so glaring, in the first stages of our controversy, that those who
then ran the risk of exciting even an appeal to Heaven rather
than a submission to British tyranny, were well persuaded that
the prospect of such a separation would induce France to inter-
pose, and do more than she has done, if necessary. America,
with the assistance of her faithful ally, has secured and esta-
blished her liberty and independence. God be praised! And
some would think it too bold to assert that France has thereby
saved the being of her great importance. But if it be true, why
may we not assert it? A punctual fulfilment of engagements
solemnly entered into by treaty, is the justice, the honor, and
policy of nations. If we, ivho have contracted debts, were in-
fluenced only by motives of sound policy, we should pay them
as soon as possible, and provide sure and adequate funds for the
payment of interest in the mean time. When we have done
this, we shall have the sense of independence impressed on our
minds, no longer feeling that state of inferiority which a wise
king tells us the borrower stands in to the lender.
Your negotiation with Holland, as "my old friend" observed,
is all your own. The faithful historian will do justice to your
merits, perhaps not till you are dead. I would have you recon-
cile yourself to this thought. While you live, you will probably
be the object of envy. The leading characters in this great
revolution will not be fairly marked in the present age. It will
be well if the leading principles are remembered long. You, I
am sure, have not the vanity which Cicero betrayed, when he
even urged his friend Licinius to publish the history of the
detection of Catiline in his lifetime, that he might enjoy it. I
am far from thinking that part of history redounds so much to
the honor of the Roman consul, as the treaty of Holland does
to its American negotiator.
December Ath. I intended to have committed the care of the
CORRESPONDENCE. 521
foregoing letter to Mr. Trumbull ; but when he called on me I
was confined to my chamber by severe bodily indisposition, un-
able \o attend even to the lightest business. I am still kept at
home, but hope soon to be abroad. Mr. Jonathan Jackson will
deliver this to you, if he meets you in London ; otherwise he
will convey it by some safe hand. When I shall be certain of
your being appointed for London, I will write to you as often
as I can. May Heaven bless you, my friend, as I am affection-
ately yours,
S. Adams.
ELBRIDGE GERRY TO JOHN ADAMS.
Anuapolis, 14 January, 1784.
The definitive treaty is this day ratified by Congress, and I
have but a few moments, by Colonel Harmar, who is charged
with the delivery thereof, to inform you that Mr. Dana is arrived
and requested to attend Congress. I have suggested to some
of my friends the good policy of appointing him to a seat in
Congress, and to him the advantages to be at this time expected
from the measure ; and I flatter myself it will be adopted.
The despatches by Mr. Thaxter have been committed, and a
report is made for authorizing yourself, Dr. Franklin, and Mr.
Jay to negotiate treaties with every power mentioned in your
letter. The general principles of the treaties are stated in the
report, conformable to which you are to be authorized to enter
into them, without first reporting to Congress, as was proposed
by the resolution of October last, passed at Princeton. Those
proceedings appeared to me calculated to defeat every treaty,
and confine our commerce to France and Holland ; for after you
had formed the projects, as they are called, and sent them to
America, projects of another nature would have been contrived
here to have made alterations, which would have in effect ren-
dered null your proceedings. I hope the report will pass as it
now stands, and that you will be expeditious in the business.
I observe by your letters that, according to your orders^ you
have reported your conferences to the secretary of foreign affairs.
Your information is useful, exceedingly so; but as the other
commissioners have not adopted the same mode, I suspect they
44*
522 CORKESPONDENCE.
»
have not received similar instructions, and that the original plan
on this side was to discover to the other your communications,
to prevent or destroy the confidence you have there established,
and to make this appear as an unfortunate accident, which
nevertheless ought to be attended with your recall. Be this as
it may, I think the interest of yourself and Mr. Jay is, at this
time, well supported in Congress. I have not time to revise,
much less to correct, and therefore must bid you adieu, after
requesting my best respects to Mr. Jay, his lady, and Mr. Car-
michael, if in Paris. Your family was in health by the last
letters from home ; but Dr. Cooper was given over by his phy-
sicians. Be assured, my dear Sir, I am on every occasion
yours sincerely,
E. Gerry.
I shall propose to Congress a resolution for approving, in
proper and honorable terms, the negotiations of their plenipoes
who negotiated the peace, but cannot say whether the mea-
sure will be successful.
TO A. M. CERISIER.
The Hague, 22 February, 1784./
I thank you for your favor of the 21st, and for the communi-
cation of the letter from my friend the Abbe de Mably.^ I am
very sensible of his partiality for a man who, he thinks, has
contributed, from virtuous principles, to a great event. His
approbation is the more precious to me, as I know his principles
to be pure, and his spirit independent. You may be sure my
advice to you will be, to write your preface, because I love to
read your compositions always, for the same reason. But take
care to caution your reader against an implicit adoption of the
sentiments of any writer, how great soever his name may be, or
how justly soever his writings in general may be esteemed. It
is with great pleasure that I see the pens of a De Mably, a
' The Abb6 de Mably had pubhshed his Observations upon the Government and
Laws of the United States, in the form of letters addressed to Mr. Adams. Of
this work a translation in Dutch was about to appear in Holland, with a preface
by M. Cerisler.
CORRESPONDENCE. 523
Raynal, a Cerisier, a Price, turned to the subject of government.
I wish the thoughts of all academies in Europe engaged on the
same theme, because I really think that the science of society is
much behind other arts and sciences, trades and manufactures, —
that the noblest of all knowledge is the least general, and that
a general spirit of inquiry would produce ameliorations in the
administrations of every government in every form. I have
read with pleasure the dissertation of the Baron de Hertzberg
in the academy of Berlin on the 29th of last month, not because
I am of his opinion, but because the example of a minister of
State and an academician will probably be followed.
Mr. Van den Corput's observation upon the plan of a loan
seems to merit attention ; but I must lep,ve it to the three
houses, in whose experience and judgment I confide.
I return you your friend's letter, and hope soon to sec his
book.
TO CHARLES SPENER.
The Hague, 24 March, 1 784.
I have received the almanac you were pleased to send me,
and I beg of you to accept of my thanks for it. I beg your
acceptance also of a couple of medals which the Baron de Thule-
meier has been so good as to convey for me to you. These
medals were not struck by any public authority. They are
the invention and execution of the medallist Holtzhey, of Am-
sterdam, solely. Another has been struck by the society, Liberty
and Zeal, in Friesland, but I have it not.
You ask my opinion of some things you have in contempla-
tion for next year, and you shall have it with candor and sin-
cerity. General Washington never was, and unless my coun-
trymen run generally mad, never will be summoned by Congress
to become the legislator of America. The legislation of Ame-
rica has been long since complete, but if it were not, she has
hundreds of citizens better qualified than any officer of her
army to be her legislators.
No town has been, and perhaps none will be, surveyed for the
524 CORRESPONDENCE.
meeting of Congress.^ The portrait of Mr. Hancock has some
resemblance in the dress and figure, but none at all in the
countenance. I have not Mr. Paine's portrait. I am sorry you
have any marks of an order of Cincinnatus, which is the first
step taken to deface the beauty of our temple of liberty.
We have had three grand objects in view, in all our political
transactions. 1. Political and civil liberty. 2. Liberty of com-
merce. 3. Religious liberty. Whatever tends to illustrate these
would be proper for your use. These are our real glory. But
perhaps it might contribute more to the sale of your almanac to
insert some things which arise more from our vanity and folly.
My poor head is scarcely worth preserving even in an almanac;
but as you request it, if I can conveniently get it done, you may
perhaps have it before the year comes about.
TO JAMES WARREN.
Auteuil, 27 August, 1784.
I received yours of the 29th of June by Mr. Jefferson, whose
appointment gives me great pleasure. He is an old friend, with
whom I have often had occasion to labor at many a knotty
problem, and in whose abilities and steadiness I always found
great cause to confide. The appointment of this gentleman,
and that of Mr. Jay and Mr. Dana, are excellent symptoms.
I am now settled with my family at a village called Auteuil,
which, although as fine a situation as any in the environs of
Paris, is famous for nothing but the residence of the French
Swan of the Seine, Boileau, whose house and garden are a few
steps from mine. The house and garden where I am, are a
monument of the youthful folly of a French nobleman, the
Comte de Rouault, who built it at a vast expense, but is now
very glad to let it to me at a rent sixteen guineas less than I
gave last year for very small and inconvenient apartments at the
1 Mr. Spener was a bookseller at Berlin, -who liad proposed to 'Mr. Adams
the two supposed events alluded to, as the leading designs for his next alma-
nac. 1, General Washington summoned by Congress to be the legislator of
America. 2. The foundation, by a survey, of a town for the meeting of Con-
CORRESPONDENCE. 525
Hotel da Roi in Paris. In house, gardens, stables, and situation
I think myself better off than even Dr. Franklin, although my
rent is lower. These hills of Auteuil, Passy, Chaillot, Meudon,
Bellevue, St. Cloud, and even Mont Martre and Mont Calvaire,
although they command the prospect of Paris and its neighbor-
hood, that is, of every thing that is great, rich and proud, are not
in my eyes to be compared to the hills of Penn and Neponset,
either in the grandeur or the beauty of the prospects.
Congress have mortified me a little by cutting off one fifth
of my salary, at a time when the increase of my family rather
required an increase of it. The consequence of it must be that
I must entertain less company, whereas the interest of the
United States requires that I should entertain more. There is
not a man in the world less inclined to pomp or to entertain-
ments than myself, and to me personally it is a relief to be
excused from both. But if I know any thing in the world, I
know that this measure is not for the public good, nor a mea-
sure of economy. If there is any body in America who under-
stands economy better than the Dutch nation, I know nothing
of either ; and their policy is always, upon occasions of conse-
quence, to appoint ambassadors, and even ambassadors extra-
ordinary, as they did at the late peace, my friend Brantzen, with
seventy-five thousand guilders to furnish his house and his table,
and seventy-five thousand guilders a year to spend in it. In
short, that nation which places its own ambassadors at the tail
of the whole creation, cannot itself expect to be soon at the
head. If this policy do not expose our country to a million
insults, and at last compel her by war and bloodshed to consult
better her own honor, I am much mistaken. How are we to
do? We are to negotiate with all the ambassadors here, that
is, we are to be invited to dine to-morrow at a table with three
thousand pounds sterling in plate upon it, and next day we are
to return this civility, by inviting the same company to dine
with us upon earthen ware I I am well aware of the motives
to this conduct, which are virtuous and laudable, but we shall
find that we cannot keep up our reputation in Europe by such
means, where there is no idea of the motives and principles of
it, and where extreme parsimony is not economy. We have
never been allowed any thing to furnish our houses or tables,
and my double capacities have obliged me to fm-nish myself,
526 CORRESPONDENCE.
both in Holland and France, which, besides exposing me to be
unmercifully robbed and plundered in my absence, has pinched
and straitened me confoundedly. However, I am the best man
in the world to bear it, and so be it.
My affectionate regards to Mrs. Warren and the family.
TO FRANCIS DANA.
Autcuil, 4 November, 1784.
I presume this will meet you in Congress, where no doubt it
is less irksome to serve than heretofore, but not yet so agree-
able as it ought to be, and must be made. The States will find
themselves obliged to make their delegates more comfortable
and more honorable, if they do not see a necessity of giving
more power to that Assembly. Many gentlemen in Europe
think the powers in the confederation are not adequate. The
Abbe de Mably and Dr. Price have taken the pains to publish
their advice. They may be right, but I am not yet of their
opinion. But most certainly the resolutions of Congress must
have weight, and the members should be the best men. While
the principal men in every State prefer to be governors, magis-
trates, &c., at home, which will be the case while they can live
with their families in more honor and greater ease, it cannot be
expected that the decisions of Congress will have the weight
which they had, while those who had the first place in the con-
fidence of the people composed that Assembly. I suppose at
present, although some of the first characters are in Congress,
the members in general have less influence than many of the
magistrates at home.
By all the accounts I read and hear, which merit attention,
the people are very happy, and getting fast into flourishing
circumstances in their agriculture, commerce, and fisheries.
May God prosper them in all! I enjoy at this humble distance
their felicity, but I wish they would enable me to do them a
little more honor by my manner of living. I consider this, how-
ever, as their affair, and do not distress myself much about it.
I shall see at the end of the year how much I am in debt, and
CORRESPONDENCE. 527
if I find myself deeper than I expect, I must run away. I can-
not well be worse anywhere. You know we must live altogether
out of character, and avoid all company, especially all great
company, which we ought to be able to see and entertain, in
return for the civilities we cannot refuse from them.
You have given me an excellent colleague and a good friend
in Mr. Jefferson, and the Doctor is very gracious, never so much
so since he was born, at least since I knew him. Nothing, on
my part, shall give him cause to be otherwise.
Shall I say a word for Dumas ? The good old man will die
if you drop him, and he will be useful, I think, if you continue
him. If there should be war, his intelligence will be wanted ;
indeed, there should be a charge d'affaires there, and he will
do as well as any body you could send there, at a moderate
expense.
Will you be so good as to write me, and let me know a little
of your politics? Cannot you order your minister of foreign
affairs to send the journals regularly to each of us? We ought
to have them. Mr. Morris's retreat, I hope, will not interrupt
or retard your fiscal arrangements. These are pressing. Doc-
tor Franklin is dunned on all sides, and we must cut and run
like Mr. Jay, if you do not provide for us.
I should be obliged to you, if you will write me what I am in
debt to you, on account of my son, and draw upon me for it,
whatever it is, unless you can persuade Congress to allow it
you. They ought to allow you for a clerk, and if they do this,
expense may be saved me, and I am very little able or willing
to bear it. Yet, if it is not allowed to you, I ought to bear
and will bear it, and still be much obliged to you for your kind,
parental care of my boy, who loves and reveres you as he ought.
He is a noble fellow, and will make a good Greek or Roman,
I hope, for he spends his whole time in their company, when he
is not writing for me.
I am as happy as a lord with my family, who send abundance
of friendship to you and yours.
528 CORRESPONDENCE.
TO MRS. WARREN.
Auteuil, 13 December, 1784.
Madam, — Your favor of the 1st of June has not, I fear, been
answered. I have indeed been very happy ever since I received
it. I live here on a kind of Penn's Hill. It is a village, remark-
able for the residence of D'Aguesseau, Boileau, Moliere, and
Helvetius, and for nothing else. I choose it merely for my
health, as my constitution is not able to sustain the nauseous
air of a great city. Amsterdam and Paris have cost me, each
of them, a nervous, putrid fever. Two such broad hints, I
think, should be sufficient warning to me to live in a purer air,
and in a place where I can have more exercise ; but I want my
rural occupations, like my friend on Neponset Hill. It is said of
a court life, that although it does not render a man happy, yet
it hinders him from being ever afterwards happy anywhere else.
The same observation is made of a Paris life. Indeed, I can
easily conceive that the delights of a court, and at Paris, becom-
ing habitual in early life, should be hardly dispensed with in
future. But these delights have taken no hold on me, and I
feel myself much more disposed to whine, like Cicero or Boling-
broke, over my exile, than to regret the loss of the pleasures of
courts or cities. In short, I take as little of either as possible.
It is ten years and more since I devoted myself wholly to the
public. How I should feel in private life, I know not; but 1
believe that the habits of public life have made no deeper
impression. Literary pursuits were the object of my youthful
desires ; but the turn in public affairs disappointed me, and I
am now too old and too blind ever to resume them with much
ardor or any prospect of success. My little farm is now my
only resource, and books for amusement, without much improve-
ment or a possibility of benefiting the world by my studies.
You have seen Mrs. Macaulay. I should certainly have made
a visit to that lady, if she had been in London when I was
there. Her literary character, and the honor she has done to
those political principles which we profess, should secure her a
respectful reception in Boston, which I hope she has found. In
England, I think she has not been indulged with so much can-
dor as she ought. If her marriage was not discreet, this is not
COKRESPONDENCE. 529
much to the world, who pardon infinitely greater indiscretions
in infinitely less meritorious characters. But whoever in Europe
is known to have adopted republican principles, must expect to
have all the engines of every court and courtier in the world
displayed against him. I wish it may be long otherwise in
America.
THE ABBE DE MABLY TO JOHN ADAMS.
Paris, 25 Fevrler, 1785.
Je reponds bien tard, Monsieur, a la lettre que vous m'avez
fait I'honneur de m'ecrire le 14 de ce mois. C'est que j'esp^rois
de vous porter moi-meme ma reponse. . Je me suis flatte de
cette douce esperance, mais de jour en jour la fortune a rompu
nos projets. Tantot le temps a ete trop detestable pour oser se
mettre en route, et tantot Messieurs les Abbes de Chalut, Arnoux,
et moi, nous avons ete condamnes par quelque indisposition a
garder la chambre. J'espere qu'a I'avenir nous serons moins
contraries, mais je ne veux plus me confier a des esp(^rances qui
pouvoient encore me tromper./ Rien n'est plus glorieux pour
moi, Monsieur, que I'invitation que vous avez la bonte de me
faire. Je ne balancerois point a entreprendre le catechisme
moral et politique dont j'ai eu I'honneur de vous parler dans les
lettres qui vous sont adressees,i si je croyois que ce nouvel
ouvrage fut de quelque utilite a votre pays. Si le premier ne
produit aucun fruit, le second auroit le meme sort ; et ce n'est
pas la peine de travailler, de chercher, d'arranger et de disposer
des verites qu'on ne voudra pas entendre. Quand j'ai invite le
Congres a cet ouvrage, je n'ai point pretendu que tous les mem-
bres de cet illustre corps y travaillassent a la fois. C'est une
chose tres impossible. Mais j'aurois voulu qu'apres avoir charge
un de ses membres de cette besogne, il en eut fait I'examen, et
apres I'avoir approuve I'eut fait paroitre sous son nom. C'est
ainsi qu'en usent nos parlemens, et les autres cours souveraines
quand elles ordonnent des rem entrances. Vous conviendrez
1 This project of a moral catechism, to be drawn up by Congress for the use
of schools, makes a leading feature of the writer's essay upon the government
of the United States.
VOL. IX. 45 H 2
530 CORRESPONDENCE.
qu'un catechisme fait et presents de cette maniere au public,
auroit un beaucoup plus grand poids, et produiroit sans doute
un grand bien. Je suis occupe actuellement a comger un an-
cien ouvrage que je veux faire imprimer. Je ne vous fatiguerai
pas par un plus long griffonage, et je me reserve le plaisir de
vous parler de tout cela la premiere fois que j'aurai I'honneur de
vous voir. J'attends ce moment avec impatience, et je vous prie
d'agreer d'avance les assurances du tendre et respectueux at-
tachement, avec lequel j'ai I'honneur d'etre, Monsieur, &c., &c.
Mably.
TO BENJAMIN WATERHOUSE.
Auteuil, 24 April, 1 785.
This letter will be delivered you by your old acquaintance
John Quincy Adams, whom I beg leave to recommend to your
attention and favor. He is anxious to study some time at
your university before he begins the study of the law, which
appears at present to be the profession of his choice. He
must undergo an examination, in which I suspect he will not
appear exactly what he is. In truth, there are few who take
their degrees at college, who have so much knowledge. But
his studies having been pursued by himself, on his travels, with-
out any steady tutor, he will be found awkward in speaking
Latin, in prosody, in parsing, and even, perhaps, in that accuracy
of pronunciation in reading orations or poems in that language,
which is often chiefly attended to in such examinations. It seems
to be necessary, therefore, that I make this apology for him to
you, and request you to communicate it in confidence to the
gentlemen who are to examine him, and such others as you
think prudent. If you were to examine him in English and
French poetry, I know not where you would find anybody his
superior ; in Roman and English history, few persons of his age.
It is rare to find a youth possessed of so much knowledge. He
has translated Virgil's ^neid, Suetonius, the whole of Sallust,
and Tacitus's Agricola, his Germany, and several books of his
Annals, a great part of Horace, some of Ovid, and some of
CsBsar's commentaries, in writing, besides a number of Tully's
CORRESPONDENCE. 531
orations. These he may show you ; and although you will find
the translations in many places inaccurate in point of style, as
must be expected at his age, you will see abundant proof that
it is impossible to make those translations without understand-
ing his authors and their language very well.
In Greek his progress has not been equal ; yet he has studied
morsels in Aristotle's Poetics, in Plutarch's Lives, and Lucian's
Dialogues, the choice of Hercules, in Xenophon, and lately he
has gone through several books in Homer's Iliad.
In mathematics I hope he will pass muster. In the course of
the last year, instead of playing cards like the fashionable world,
I have spent my evenings with him. We went with some
accuracy through the geometry in the Preceptor, the eight books
of Simpson's Euclid in Latin, and compared it, problem by
problem and theorem by theorem, with le pere de Chales in
French ; we went through plane trigonometry and plain sailing,
Fenning's Algebra, and the decimal fractions, arithmetical and
geometrical proportions, and the conic sections, in Ward's mathe-
matics. I then attempted a sublime flight, and endeavored to
give him some idea of the differential method of calculation of
the Marquis de L'Hopital, and the method of fluxions and
infinite series of Sir Isaac Newton ; but alas ! it is thirty years
since I thought of mathematics, and I found I had lost the little
I once knew, especially of these higher branches of geometry, so
that he is as yet but a smatterer, like his father. However, he has
a foundation laid, which will enable him with a year's attend-
ance on the mathematical professor, to make the necessary
proficiency for a degree. He is studious enough, and emulous
enough, and when he comes to mix with his new friends and
young companions, he will make his way well enough. I hope
he will be upon his guard against those airs of superiority among
the scholars, which his larger acquaintance with the world, and
his manifest superiority in the knowledge of some things, may
but too naturally inspire into a young mind, and I beg of you.
Sir, to be his friendly monitor in this respect and in all others.
532 CORRESPONDENCE.
TO SAMUEL ADAMS.
Auteuil, 27 April, 1785.
The child whom you used to lead out into the Common, to
see with detestation the British troops, and with pleasure the
Boston militia, will have the honor to deliver you this letter.
He has since seen the troops of most nations in Europe, with-
out any ambition, I hope, of becoming a military man. He
thinks of the bar and peace and civil life, and I hope will follow
and enjoy them with less interruption than his father could. If
you have in Boston a virtuous club, such as we used to delight
and improve ourselves in, they will inspire him with such senti-
ments as a young American ought to entertain, and give him
less occasion for lighter company.
I think it no small proof of his discretion, that he chooses to
go to New England rather than to Old. You and I know, that
it will probably be more for his honor and his happiness in
the result; but young gentlemen of eighteen do not always
see through the same medium with old ones of fifty.
So I am going to London I I suppose you will threaten me
with being envied again. I have more cause to be pitied ; and
although I will not say with Dr. Cutler, " I hate to be pitied," I
do not know^ why I should dread envy. I shall be sufficiently
vexed, I expect. But as Congress are about to act with dignity,
I do not much fear but that I shall be able to do something worth
going for. If I do not, I shall come home, and envy nobody,
nor be envied. If they send as good a man to Spain, as they
have in Jay for their foreign department, and will have in Jeffer-
son at Versailles, I shall be able to correspond in perfect con-
fidence with all those public characters that I shall have most
need of assistance from, and shall fear nothing.
TO JOHN JEBB.
London, 21 August, 1785.
As I had the misfortune, the other day, not to agree fully with
you in opinion concerning the 36th article of the Constitution
CORRESPONDENCE. 533
of Pennsylvania,! j ^gg jgave to state to you my objections
against it, and then to ask you if there is not some weight in
them.
My first objection is, that it is not intelligible. It is impos-
sible to discover what is meant by " offices of profit." Does it
mean that there can be no necessity for, nor use in, annexing
either salary, fees, or perquisites, to public offices? and that all
who serve the public should have no pay from the public, but
should subsist themselves and families out of their own private
fortunes, or their own labor in their private profession, calling,
trade, or farm ? This seems to be the sense of it, and in this
sense it may make its court to the Quakers and Moravians,
Dunkers, Mennonites, or other worthy people in Pennsylvania,
that is to say, to their prejudices, and it will recommend itself
to whatever there is of popular malignity and envy, and of vul-
gar avarice, in every country. But it is founded in error and
mischief. For public offices in general require the whole time,
and all the attention of those who hold them. They can have
no time nor strength of body or mind for their private profes-
sions, trades, or farms. They must then starve with their fami-
lies unless they have ample fortunes. But would you make it
a law that no man should hold an office who had not a private
income sufficient for the subsistence and prospects of himself
and family ? What would be the consequence of this ? All
offices would be monopolized by the rich ; the poor and the
middling ranks would be excluded, and an aristocratic despot-
ism would immediately follow, which would take by fraud and
intrigue at first, and by open avowed usurpation soon, whatever
they pleased for their compensation.
My second objection to the article is, that it is inconsistent.
After seeming to require that offices should have no emoluments,
it stumbles at its own absurdity, and adds : " But if any man is
1 This was the first Constitution of that State. The article is in these words :
" As every freeman, to preserve his own independence, (if without a suffi-
cient estate), ought to have some profession, calling, trade, or farm, whereby
he may honestly subsist, there can be no necessity for, nor use in, establishing
offices of profit, the usual efl'ects of which ai-e dependence and servility unbe-
coming freemen in the possessors and expectants, faction, contention, corrup-
tion, and disorder among the people. But if any man is called into public
service to the prejudice of his private affairs, he has a right to expect a reason-
able compensation for his services ; and Avhenever an office, through increase of
fees, or otherwise, becomes so profitable as to occasion many to apply for it, the
profits ought to be, and shall be lessened by the legislature.
45*
534 COKRESPONDENCE.
called into public service to the prejudice of his private affairs,
he has a right to a reasonable compensation." Is not this con-
trary to the doctrine that there can be no use in offices of profit?
Are not the profits of offices intended as a reasonable compensa-
tion for time, labor, and neglect and prejudice of private affairs?
If you look into the salaries and fees of offices in general, that
is, into the legal profits, you will find them, not only in America,
but in France, Holland, nay in England, far from being extra-
vagant. You will find them but a moderate and reasonable
compensation for their unavoidable expenses and the prejudice
to their private affairs. It is not the legal profit, but the secret
perquisites, the patronage, and the abuse, Avhich is the evil.
And this is what I complain of in the article, that it diverts the
attention, jealousy, and hatred of the people from the perquisites,
patronage, and abuse, which is the evil, to the legal, honest pro-
fit of the office, which is a blessing.
3. The dependence and servility in the possessors and expect-
ants, and the faction, contention, corruption, and disorder among
the people, do not proceed from the legal profits of offices, which
are known to all, but from the perquisites, patronage, and abuses,
which are known only to a few.
4. Nor is it by any means a good rule, that whenever an
office, through increase of fees or otherwise, becomes so profit-
able as to occasion many to apply for it, the profit ought to be
lessened by the legislature.
We are so fond of being seen and talked of, we have such a
passion for the esteem and confidence of our fellow-men, that
wherever applications for office are permitted by the laws and
manners, there will be many to apply, whether the profits are
large or small, or none at all. If the profits are none, all the
rich will apply, that is to say, all who can live upon their own
incomes; all others wifi be excluded, because, if they labor for
the public, themselves and families must starve. By this means
an aristocracy or oligarchy of the rich will be formed, which will
soon put an end by their arts and craft to this self-denying
system. If many apply, all applications should be forbidden,
or, if they are permitted, a choice should be made of such out
of the multitude as wiU be contented with legal profits, without
making advantage of patronage and perquisites.
I do not mean by this, that the legal profits should be very
CORRESPONDENCE. 535
great. They should afford a decent support, and should enable
a man to educate and provide for his family as decent and
moderate men do in private life ; but it would be unjust as well
as impolitic in the public, to call men of the best talents and
characters from professions and occupations where they might
provide for their families plentifully, and let them spend their
lives in the service of the public, to the impoverishment and
beggary of their posterity.
I have given you this trouble, because I think these to be
fundamental errors in society. Mankind will never be happy
nor their liberties secure, until the people shall lay it down as
a fundamental rule to make the support and reward of public
offices a matter of justice and not gratitude. Every public man
should be honestly paid for his services ; then justice is done to
him. But he should be restrained from every perquisite not
known to the laws, and he should make no claims upon the
gratitude of the public, nor ever confer an office within his
patronage, upon a son, a brother, a friend, upon pretence that
he is not paid for his services by the profits of his office. Mem-
bers of parliament should be paid, as well as soldiers and sailors.
I know very well that the word "disinterested" turns the
heads of the people by exciting their enthusiasm. But although
there are disinterested men, they are not enough in any age or
any country to fill all the necessary offices, and therefore the
people may depend upon it, that the hypocritical pretence of
disinterestedness will be set up to deceive them, much oftener
than the virtue will be practised for their good. It is worth
while to read the lives of the Roman Catholic saints ; your St.
Ignatius Loyolas, your St. Bernards, and hundreds of others.
It was always disinterestedness, which enabled them to excite
enthusiasm among the people, and to command their purses to
any amount, in order to establish their wild and pernicious
institutions. The cry of gratitude has made more men mad,
and established more despotism in the world, than all other
causes put together. Every throne has been erected on it, and
every mitre has sprung out of it ; so has every coronet ; and
whenever any man serves the public without pay, a cry of gra-
titude is always set up, which pays him, or his cousins or sons,
ten times as much as he ever deserved. Let government, then,
be founded in justice ; and let all claims upon popular gratitude
536 CORRESPONDENCE.
be watched with a jealous eye. Hang well and pay well, con-
veys to my understanding infinitely more sense and more virtue
than this whole article of the Pennsylvania Constitution.
I have long wanted to communicate with some of the enlight-
ened friends of liberty here upon some parts of our constitutions,
and I know of none who merits the character better. If you are
willing, I will take some future opportunity to write you a few
thoughts upon some other things. Meantime, let this remain
between ourselves, if you please.
TO ARTHUR LEE.
Loudon, 6 September, 1785.
1 received yesterday your favor of 27th July, and wish it were
in my power to relieve your anxiety by giving you any com-
fortable hopes from this country.
The national sense and public voice is decidedly against us
in the whale-trade and ship-trade, and there are as yet but feeble
parties for us in the West India trade and colony trade. I may
say to you, that if Ireland had not escaped from the snare, we
should have had a very dull prospect. I see no resource for us
but in a navigation act, and this will not relieve us soon. Our
merchants have enslaved themselves to this country by the debts
they have contracted. They are afraid to explore new channels
of commerce, lest they should offend the British merchants and
be sued. But there is no choice left us. Our country must
not be ruined, in tenderness to those who have run imprudently
too far into debt.
As far as I can penetrate the hearts of the ministers, they are
very far from being as they should be relative to us. Those
of them who have acquired immense popularity, reputation,
and influence, by former professions of attachment to the Ame-
rican cause, as Camden and Richmond, are much changed ; in
short, we have no party for us here. Yet, indeed, there is no
party at present that dares declare very explicitly against us.
All sides are as silent and mysterious as you can conceive
them to be, and when I shall get any answer, I cannot guess ;
CORRESPONDENCE. 537
but I can confidently guess that when it does come, it will not
be what it must finally be, in order to relieve us, and bring the
two countries together in good humor.
Ireland, I think, stands between us and evil. Her indocility
may have changed the plans of the cabinet in many parti-
culars. In short, I do not believe there is any fixed plan, or
will be any, until the next budget shall be opened. The debt
stands between Ireland and harm. This country is in a more
critical situation than ours. Yet it may take two years to
decide its fate. Many persons express anxious fears of distrac-
tions and anarchy ; others think they cannot stand under the
burden of the debt ; but must lower the interest.
The policy of our country is not perfect, neither. The most
fatal and egregious fault of all is leaving their debt in Holland
and France unfunded. This error is so easily rectified that it
is astonishing it is not done. This single step may protect us
from a war, and confute forever the numberless calumnies which
circulate now, and will never cease until that is done. I have
hitherto paid the interest in Holland out of the principal; but
this will by and by be impracticable, and then such a clamor
and obloquy will succeed as will make us all ashamed of our-
selves. How will it be possible to vindicate the faith or the
honor of our country ?
You give me gi-eat pleasure by your approbation of my son's
conduct, and I am under great obligation to your brother for
the notice he took of him. Count Sarsfield, who has just now
left me, is rejoiced at your appointment to the treasury, and
desires me to present his regards to you. He leads the life of a
peripatetic philosopher here, has done so since May, and will
stay till October. He rambles with Lord Shelburne and Lord
Harcourt, and is the happiest man I know. I have seen him
two summers in Holland. Observation and reflection are all
his business, and his dinner and his friend all his pleasure. If
a man was born for himself alone, I would take him for a
model.
538 CORRESPONDENCE.
TO JOHN JEBB.
London, 10 September, 1785.
It is a wise maxim that every free man ought to have some
profession, calling, trade, or farm, whereby he may honestly
subsist ; but it by no means follows as a consequence that there
can be no necessity for, nor use in establishing offices of profit,
if we mean by these, offices with moderate, decent, and stated
salaries, sufficient for the comfortable support of the officers and
their families. Offices in general ought to yield as honest a
subsistence, and as clear an independence as professions, call-
ings, trades, or farms. If by offices of profit we mean offices
of excessive profit, it is not only true that there can be no neces-
sity for them nor use in establishing them, but it is clear they
ought never to exist. The dependence and servility unbecom-
ing freemen in the possessors and expectants, the faction, con-
tention, corruption, and disorder amongst the people, do not arise
from the honest profit, but from the excess, and they oftener
arise from ambition than avarice. An office without profits,
without salary, fees, perquisites, or any kind of emolument, is
sought for with servility, faction, and corruption, from ambition,
as often as an office of profit is sought from avarice.
And this is the way in which corruption is constantly intro-
duced into society. It constantly begins with the people, in
their elections. Indeed, the first step of corruption is this dis-
honest disposition in the people, an unwillingness to pay their
representatives. The moment they require of a candidate that
he serve them gratis, they establish an aristocracy by excluding
from a possibility of serving them, all who are poor and unambi-
tious, and by confining their suffrages to a few rich men. When
this point is once gained of the people, which is easily gained,
because their own avarice pleads for it, tyranny has made a
gigantic stride. I appeal to your knowledge of England,
whether servility, faction, contention, and corruption appear
anywhere in so gross forms as in the election of members of
parliament, whose offices are very expensive and have no pro-
fits. Is not the legislative at this hour more corrupt than the
executive ? Are there not more servility, faction, contention,
and corruption in the offices in the election of the people than
CORRESPONDENCE. 539
in disposing of those in the gift of the crown ? Are there not
as many in proportion who apply for these elections as for
offices in the army, navy, church, or revenue? The number of
persons who apply for an office, then, is no proof of an increase
of its fees or profits. The man who offers to a city or borough
to serve them for nothing, offers a bribe to every elector, and
the answer should be, " Sir, you affi-ont me. I want a service
which is worth something. I am able and willing to pay for it.
I will not lay myself under any obligation to you by accepting
your gift. I will owe you no gratitude any further than you
serve me faithfully. The obligation and gratitude shall be from
you to me, and if you do not do your duty to me, I will be per-
fectly free to call you to an account, and to punish you; and if
you will not accept of pay for your service, you shall not serve
me."
There are in history examples of characters wholly disinter-
ested, who have displayed the sublimest talents, the greatest
virtues, at the same time that they have made long and severe
sacrifices to their country, of their time, their estates, their
labor, healths, and even their lives, and they are deservedly
admired and revered by all virtuous men. But how few have
they been ! One in two or three ages; certainly not enough to
watch over the rights of mankind, for these have been lost in
almost all ages and nations. Societies should not depend upon
a succession of such men for the preservation of their liberties.
The people ruin their own cause, by exacting such sacrifices in
their service. Men see nothing but misery to themselves and
ruin to their families, attached to the honest service of the
people, and the examples of Aristides, Fabricius, and Cincin-
natus, have in all ages terrified thousands of able and worthy
men from engaging in a service so hopeless and uncomfortable.
Knaves and hypocrites see throvigh the whole system at once.
" I will take the people their own way," says one of these, " I
will serve them without pay. I will give them money. I will
make them believe that I am perfectly disinterested, until I gain
their confidence and excite their enthusiasm. Then I will
carry that confidence and enthusiasm to market, and will sell
it for more than all I give them, and all their pay would have
amounted to. Si populus vult decipi, decipiatur. It should be
a fundamental maxim with the people never to receive any
540 COREESPONDENCE.
services gratis, nor to suffer any faithful service to go unre-
warded, nor any unfaithful services unpunished. Their rewards
should be temperate. Instead of this, how stingy are they at
first, and how wild at last ! Stingy, until the man has served
them long enough to gain their confidence, mad and frantic
with generosity, afterwards. Their gratitude, when once their
enthusiasm is excited, knows no bounds ; it scatters their favors
all around the man. His family, his father, brother, son, all his
relations, all his particular friends, must be idolized. Wealth
and power without measure or end must be conferred upon
them, without considering whether they be wise men or fools,
honest men or knaves.
The social science will never be much improved, until the
people unanimously know and consider themselves as the foun-
tain of power, and until they shall know how to manage it wisely
and honestly. Reformatioi,i must begin with the body of the
people, which can be done only, to effect, in their educations.
The whole people must take upon themselves the education of
the whole people, and must be willing to bear the expenses of it.
There should not be a district of one mile square, without a
school in it, not founded by a charitable individual, but main-
tained at the expense of the people themselves. They must be
taught to reverence themselves, instead of adoring their servants,
their generals, admirals, bishops, and statesmen. Instead of
admiring so extravagantly a prince of Orange, we should admire
the Batavian nation, which produced him. Instead of adoring
a Washington, mankind should applaud the nation which edu-
cated him. If Thebes owes its liberty and glory to Epaminon-
das, she will lose both when he dies, and it would have been as
well if she had never enjoyed a taste of either. But if the
knowledge, the principles, the virtues, and the capacities of the
Theban nation produced an Epaminondas, her liberties and
glory will remain when he is no more. And if an analogous
system of education is established and enjoyed by the whole
nation, it will produce a succession of Epaminondases. The
human mind naturally exerts itself to form its character, accord-
ing to the ideas of those about it. When children and youth
hear their parents and neighbors, and all about them, applaud-
ing the love of country, of labor, of liberty, and all the virtues,
habits, and faculties, which constitute a good citizen, that is, a
CORRESPONDENCE. 541
patriot and a hero, those children endeavor to acquire those
qualities, and a sensible and virtuous people will never fail to
form multitudes of patriots and heroes. I glory in the character
of a Washington, because I know him to be only an exemplifi-
cation of the American character. I know that the general
character of the natives of the United States is the same with
his, and that the prevalence of such sentiments and principles
produced his character and preserved it, and I know there are
thousands of others who have in them all the essential qualities,
moral and intellectual, which compose it. If his character stood
alone, I should value it very little, — I should wish it had never
existed; because, although it might have wrought a great event,
yet that event would be no blessing. In the days of Pompey,
Washington would have been a Csesar ; his officers and parti-
sans would have stimulated him to it; he could not have had
their confidence without it; in the time of Charles, a Crom-
well; in the days of Philip the second, a prince of Orange, and
would have wished to be Count of Holland. But in America
he could have no other ambition than that of retiring. In wiser
and more virtuous times he would not have had that, for that is
an ambition. He would still be content to be Governor of Vir-
ginia, President of Congress, a member of a Senate, or a House
of Representatives. It was a general sentiment in America
that Washington must retire. Why ? What is implied in this
necessity ? If he could not afford to serve the public longer
without pay, let him be paid. Would it lessen his reputation ?
Why should it? If the people were perfectly judicious, instead
of lessening, it would raise it. But if it did not, surely the late
revolution was not undertaken to raise one great reputation to
make a sublime page in history, but for the good of the people.
Does not this idea of the necessity of his retiring, imply an
opinion of danger to the public, from his continuing in public,
a jealousy that he might become ambitious ? and does it not
imply something still more humiliating, a jealousy in the people
of one another, a jealousy of one part of the people, that an-
other part had grown too fond of him, and acquired habitually
too much confidence in him, and that there would be danger
of setting him up for a king? Undoubtedly it does, and un-
doubtedly there were such suspicions, and grounds for them too.
Now, I ask, what occasioned this dangerous enthusiasm for
VOL. IX. 4*^
542 CORRESPONDENCE.
him ? I answer, that, great as his talents and virtues are, they
did not altogether contribute so much to it as his serving with-
out pay, which never fails to turn the heads of the multitude.
His ten thousand officers under hhu, and all his other admirers,
might have sounded his fame as much as they would, and they
might have justly sounded it very high, and it would not all
have produced such ecstasies among the people as this single
circumstance. Now, I say, this is all wrong. There should
have been no such distinction made between him and the other
generals. He should have been paid, as well as they, and the
people should have too high a sense of their own dignity ever
to suffer any man to serve them for nothing. The higher and
more important the office, the more rigorously should they insist
upon acknowledging its appointment by them and its depend-
ence upon them. But then they must be sensible of their own
enthusiasm, and constantly upon their guard against it. They
should consider that, although history presents us perhaps with
one example in five hundred years of one disinterested character,
it shows us two thousand instances every year of the semblance
of disinterestedness, counterfeited for the most selfish purposes
of cheating them more effectually. And the glory of an Aristides
and half a dozen others, with the transient flashes of liberty they
preserved in the world, is a miserable compensation to mankind
for the long, dreary ages of gloomy despotism, which have
passed almost over the whole earth by means of disinterested
patriots becoming artful knaves, or rather by the people them-
selves not sufiering their benefactors to persevere in that disin-
terestedness to the end, which they exact of them at first ; for
I think that it has been the people themselves who have always
created their own despots.
You erased something you had written about the present
times. I wish you would restore it. This correspondence must
be confidential. But the late Lord Chatham is a striking
example. He preserved the character of disinterestedness but
imperfectly ; yet it was somewhat of this kind that elevated
him so high in the affections of the people, and you now see
the consequences. The people think it a duty to God to make
up in their devotion to his son, what they think they were
wanting in gratitude to him. What but a whirlwind could
have done what we have seen ?
r
CORRESPONDENCE. 543
Government must become something more intelligible, ra-
tional, and steady.
Pardon all this from your friend.
TO JOHN JEBB.
London, 25 September, 1785.
I have read with pleasure your letter of the 13th, and although
I cannot entirely agree with you, I find the difference between
us is very small in comparison with that between me and some
other of my friends. In Mr. Hume's perfect Commonwealth,
"no representative, magistrate, or Senator, as such, has any
salary. The protector, secretaries, councils, and ambassadors
have salaries." Your opinion coincides with his, excepting that
you think the higher magistrates, as the judges for example,
should have salaries. I carry the point so far as to desire that
all representatives, magistrates, and Senators, as well as judges
and executive officers, should have salaries. Not merely upon
the principle of justice, that every man has a right to com-
pensation for his time and labor, but to maintain the responsi-
bility of the person, and to raise and support, both in the minds
of the people themselves, and of their representatives, senators,
and magistrates, a sense of the dignity and importance of the
people. These salaries, to be sure, should be in proportion to
the nature and duration of the service. A project to introduce
such a practice into this country, would be chimerical; but in
a country where it has long obtained and still exists, I wish it
to continue. In some parts of the United States it has ever
prevailed, and it is to be hoped it may be extended to all other
parts. It is thought by many to be one of the best securities
of liberty and equality.
In the thirteenth section of the second chapter of the Consti-
tution of Massachusetts, you may see their sense of the import-
ance of salaries to governors and judges. My friend, de Mably,
page 87, expresses great indignation against it. "Je voudrais.,
au contraire, qu'd mesure que les digniles sont plus importanles, on
leur attribudt des appointemens moins considerables. Je voudrais
544 CORRESPONDENCE.
mime qu^elles n'en eussent aucuns. . . . On aime Men peu la patrie
quand on demande des salaires pour la servir. Que la republique
de Massachusetts ait le courage de detruire la lot dont je me
plains.''^ I love the Abbe and revere his memory, but I was
sorry that so crude an idea should be scattered in America,
where many will be greedy to lay hold of it, and that a great
writer who had spent fifty years in reading upon government,
and liad done honor to his age by his writings, should adopt
with such facility so gross a vulgar error and popular blunder.
Flattery has done more mischief to society, when addressed to
the people, than when oft'ered to kings. There is always, in every
popular Assembly, a party actuated by a sordid avarice. One
of two candidates for an election, by offering to serve without
pay, will have all the votes of this description of electors./ So
will the Abbe's doctrine, but he had not considered tTiat an
aristocracy would be the immediate and inevitable consequence
of it. In the Massachusetts there would be no choice left ; there
are but two at most, if there is more than one, who could serve
as governor. A fine bargain the people would make of it ! For
the sake of saving a penny a piece, which it would cost them for
a salary, they must pass by a thousand wise and virtuous men,
and give their votes only for two rich ones, and that, whether
they have wisdom and virtues or not. The people save nothing
in the end. The consequence is, there must be no strict inquiry,
no exact accounts. The Governor's family must be provided
for by offices, and his son, fit or unfit, must be put in his place.
The magistrates in France, instead of having salaries, buy their
offices. What is the consequence ? Let the Abbe himself say.
He would answer from Heaven, that they find ways to levy
partial taxes to support even their mistresses, at three times the
expense of the whole salary of a Massachusetts Governor.
Adieu.
R. H. LEE TO JOHN ADAMS.
ChantUly, 12 December, 1785.
Dear Sir, — My presidential year being ended, I had left
New York for this place (from which and from my family I had
CORRESPONDENCE. 545
been thirteen months absent) before the letters which you did
me the honor to write me on the 26th of August, the 6th and
7th of September, came to hand, which has prevented me from
showing the civilities to Mr. Storer and Mr. Wingrove, that I
should otherwise have taken pleasure in doing. The state of
my health is so precarious (being at present prevented by the
gout in my right hand from writing myself), that it is uncertain
when I shall be permitted to return to Congress ; but let me be
where I will, I shall always be happy to correspond with you.
My brother, Arthur Lee, who now resides at New York, a com-
missioner of the treasury of the United States, will receive and
forward to me such letters as you are pleased to write. It
gives me pleasure to know that Colonel Smith is so agreeable
a secretary to you. Indeed, I had expected so from his polite-
ness, his good sense, and his spirit. It is certainly a misfortune
both to the United States and to Great Britain, that a singular
kind of after ivisdom of the latter, should so perpetually keep
the two countries at variance with each other. To profit from
experience so becometh nations as well as individuals, that it
denoteth much ill to both, when advice is not taken from that
best source of knowledge. It is this kind of wisdom that,
having already irrecoverably lost to Great Britain a great and
valuable part of her dominions, is now^ proceeding to deprive
her of a great and valuable part of her commerce, also. For I
plainly perceive that the State errors, and the commercial mis-
takes of that country, are going to force these United States,
contrary to their inclination, into systems that will probably
prevent our trade from ever again flowing, as it probably would
have done, into British channels. It is true that we may be
injured in the commencement of these experiments; but it is
certain that those who compel them will be more hurt. A simi-
lar experiment has been lately made, and the issue recent; yet
such is the curse attending Britain and British statesmen, that
they will neither remember the one or profit from the other. I
join with you in hoping soon to see American factories esta-
blished in the east, and certainly it will be highly agreeable to
me to find Mr. Steptoe promoting there his country's and his
own good.
I have the honor to be, &c.
Richard Henry Lee.
4G* 12
546 CORRESPONDENCE.
TO COUNT SARSFIELD.
London, 3 February, 1786.
In your kind letter of the 26th of January, you ask an expla-
nation of that expression of the Massachusetts, "a rider of
hobby-horses." In the original of the word hobby-horse, it sig-
nified a little horse, the same with pony in English, or bidet in
French. The Eno:lish then transferred it to Irish and Scottish
horses, cheval d'lrlande and d'Ecosse. From this horse it was
transferred to those little wooden horses which are made for
children to ride on for their amusement. It is defined " a stick on
which boys get astride and ride ;" "?/w bdtonpar leqiiel les enfans
vont a cheval.''^ It is defined in Latin, arundo longa, a reed or
cane ; for the boys in want of better instruments made use of
these. From these originals it has been used, I do not know
whether metaphorically or poetically, to signify any favorite
amusement of grown men of all ranks and denominations, even
sages and heroes, philosophers and legislators, nobles, princes,
and kings. All nations, I believe, have some word appropriated
to this meaning. There is one in French, which I once knew
familiarly, but have forgotten. The Dutch have a proverb,
'■'■ Jeder heeft zyn speelpop,^'' "every one has his hobby-horse."
For example, the hobby-horse of Mr. Lionet was the anatomy
of caterpillars ; that of Mr. Ploos Van Amstell, to collect draw-
ings, &c. The Italians say, " Quel leg-no o bastone che i fan-
ciulli si mettono fra gambe e chiamano it loro cavalloy The
Dutch proverb is very true ; every man has a staff which he
puts sometimes between his legs and rides, and calls it his
hobby-horse. It is in this sense the hobby-horse of many
curious persons, to become acqiiainted with singular and extra-
ordinary characters.
It has ever been my hobby-horse to see rising in America an
empire of liberty, and a prospect of two or three hundred mil-
lions of freemen, without one noble or one king among them.
You say it is impossible. If I should agree with you in this,
I would still say, let us try the experiment, and preserve our
equality as long as we can. A better system of education for
the common people might preserve them long from such arti-
ficial inequalities as are prejudicial to society, by confounding
the natural distinctions of right and wrong, virtue and vice.
CORRESPONDENCE. 547
SAMUEL ADAMS TO JOHN ADAMS.
Boston, 13 April, 1786.
Doctor Gordon is to deliver you this letter. He is going
to the land of his nativity, wishing for the best happiness of
his own country and ours, and hoping that mutual affection
will be at length restored, as the only means of the prosper-
ity of both. As he determines to spend the remainder of his
days in the country where he was born, what rational man,
who considers the ties of human nature, will wonder if '•'■esto
perpetua,^^ is his most ardent prayer for her? But the at-
tachments he has made here, his private friendships, and the
part he has taken in our public cause, afford reason to believe
that his second wish is for us. I am afraid, however, that the
Dr. builds too much upon the hopes of the return of mutual
affection; for can this exist without forgiveness of injury, and
can his country ever cordially forgive ours, whom she intended
to injure so greatly ? Her very disappointment will perpetually
irritate her own feelings, and in spite of reason or religion, pre-
vent her conceiving a sentiment of friendship for us. And,
besides, she will never believe that there is a possibility that vw
can forgive her. We must, therefore, be content, at least for a
great while to come, to live with her as a prudent man will with
one who indeed has professed a friendship for him, but whose
sincerity he has reason vehemently to suspect ; guarding against
injury from him, by making it his interest to do as little as pos-
sible. This is an arduous task our country has committed to
you. Trade is a matter I have had so little to do with, that it
is not in my power to aid you in this more than in any one
thing else. May he who has endued you with a strength of
understanding that your country confides in, afford you all that
light which is necessary for so great an undertaking!
The child whom I led by the hand, with a particular design, I
find is now become a promising youth. He brought me one of
your letters. God bless the lad ! If I was instrumental at that
time of enkindling the sparks of patriotism in his tender heart,
it will add to my consolation in the latest hour. Adieu, my
friend. Mrs. Adams desires your lady and family may be
assured of her cordial esteem and love. Believe me, &c.
S. Adams.
548 CORRESPONDENCE.
TO COTTON TUFTS. -^
London, 26 May, 1786.
There is a subject so closely connected with the business of
my mission to this court, that I can no longer be silent upon it
with honor. The most insuperable bar to all my negotiations
here has been laid by those States, which have made laws
against the treaty. The Massachusetts is one of them. The
law for suspending execution for British debts, however colored
or disguised, I make no scruple to say to you is a direct breach
of the treaty. Did my ever dear, honored, and beloved Massa-
chusetts mean to break her public faith ? I cannot believe it
of her. Let her then repeal the law without delay.
I cannot conceive the reason why the Senate did not concur
with the House in repealing the laws excluding the tories. Why
should a silly warfare be kept up at so great an expense against
those wretches ?
It is our persecution alone, that makes their enmity powerful
and important. Are we afraid they will be popular and per-
suade our people to come under the British yoke again ? We
have one infallible security against that, I assure you. This
government and this nation would spurn us, if we were to offer
them the sovereignty of us. The reason is plain; they know it
would be the certain and final ruin of the nation to accept it,
because we could throw them again into a war, not only against
us, but France, Spain, and Holland, and emancipate ourselves
again whenever we should please.
Are the merchants afraid the tories will get their commerce ?
What is this to the country ? Their capitals will assist us in
paying our debts, and in opening a trade every way. Are our
politicians afraid of their places ? In freedom's name let our
countrymen have their own choice, and if they please to choose
Jonathan Sewall for their ambassador at St. James's, I will
return to Penn's Hill with pleasure.
I long to see ray countrymen acting as if they felt their own
great souls, with dignity, generosity, and spirit, not as if they
1 This gentleman, who had married the sister of Mrs. Adams's mother, and
had bcen'intrusted with the sole care of Mr. Adams's private affairs during his
absence, was at this time a member of the Senate of Massachusetts.
CORRESrONDENCE. 549
were guided by little prejudices and passions, and partial pri-
vate interests.
On the one band, I would repeal every law that has the least
appearance of clashing with the treaty of peace; on the other,
I would prohibit or burden with duties every importation from
Britain, and would demand, in a tone that would not be resisted,
the punctual fulfilment of every iota of the treaty on the part
of Britain. Nay, I would carry it so far, that if the posts were
not immediately evacuated, I would not go and attack them,
but declare war directly, and march one army to Quebec and
another to Nova Scotia.
This is decisive language, you will say. True. But no
great thing was ever done in this world but by decisive under-
standings and tempers, unless by accident.
Our countrymen have too long trifled with public and private
faith, public and private credit, and I will venture to say that
nothing but remorse and disgrace, poverty and misery, will be
their portion until these are held sacred.
TO COTTON TUFTS.
London, 2 June, 1 786.
I am proud to learn, by your letter of 13th April, that 1 am
so rich at the university. If Thomas gets in, I shall be still
happier,^ The expense will be considerable, and your draught
shall be honored for the necessary.
A year will soon be about, and what are we to do then with
John ? What lawyer shall we desire to take him, in town or
country ? and what sum must be given with him ? and what
will his board and clothing cost? and where shall we get
money to pay all these expenses? Shall I come home and take
all my boys into my own office ? I was once thought to have
a tolerable knack at making lawyers, and now could save a
large sum by it. I am afraid I shall not get it done so cheap
as I used to do it.
I do not see why I should stay here, unless there should be a
1 Mr. Adams had his three sons at Cambridge at the same time.
550 CORRESPONDENCE.
change in the sentiments and conduct of my fellow-citizens.
There are, however, some appearances of an approaching
change.
Dr. Gordon's language is decent and friendly, as far as I have
heard. I believe the suspicion of him, that appears to have
taken place in America, is needless. What profit he will make
of his history, I know not. It is a story that nobody here
loves to read. Indeed, neither history, nor poetry, nor any
thing but painting and music, balls and spectacles, is in vogue.
Reading is out of fashion, and philosophy itself has become a
fop gambolling in a balloon, "idling in the wanton summer's
air," like the gossamer, — so light is vanity. Herschel, indeed,
with his new glass, has discovered the most magnificent spec-
tacle that ever was seen or imagined, and I suppose it is chieHy
as a spectacle that his discovery is admired. If all those single,
double, triple, quadruple worlds are peopled as fully as every
leaf and drop is in this, what a merry company there is of us
in the universe, all fellow-creatures, insects, animalcules, and
all! Why are we kept so unacquainted with each other? I
fancy we shall know each other better, and shall see that even
cards and routs, dancing dogs, learned pigs, scientific birds, &c.,
are not so despicable things as we in our wonderful wisdom
sometimes think them.
The Bishop of LlandafFhas made the trees, not walk, but feel
and think, and why should we not at once settle it, that every
atom thinks and feels, a universe tremblingly alive all over?
The more we pursue these speculations, the higher sense we
shall have of the Father and Master of all, and the firmer expect-
ation that all which now appears irregular, will be found to be
design. But where have I rambled ?
TO BENJAMIN HIGHBORN.
London, 27 January, 1787.
I have received with pleasure your obliging letter of the 24th
of October, and am much affected with the disagreeable state
of things in the Massachusetts. It is indeed news to me that
CORRESPONDENCE. 551
there is any such fixed determination as you mention, in the
minds of men of greatest influence. Perhaps I am not a proper
confidant of those gentlemen. As to my coming home, it is
not possible for me to come home with decency until next year,
at the expiration of my commission, which will be in about
twelve months. Then I shall come home, of course. I wish
with all my heart I were now in Boston, or to embark for that
town to-morrow ; not that I give full credit to your sanguine
partiality to me in supposing that I shall be chosen first magis-
trate; not that I think it an eligible situation in such times, or
that my health or other qualifications would enable me to sus-
tain the weight of it with dignity at any time. Indeed, I doubt
whether my sentiments of government are agreeable to the
majority of our State, and I am not enough of an accommodat-
ing disposition to give up or conceal sentiments that I think
of consequence, for the sake of places. The commotions in
New England alarmed me so much that I have thrown together
"some hasty speculations upon the subject of government, which
you will soon see. If the general spirit of those papers is not
approved in our country, my career in political life will be very
short.
I see, by some newspapers received to-day, that you have
distinguished yourself in support of the laws, in a manner that
does you great honor, and will not soon be forgotten. I begin
to suspect that some gentlemen who had more zeal than know-
ledge in the year 1770, will soon discover that I had good
policy, as well as sound lav^;^, on my side, when I ventured to
lay open before our people the laws against riots, routs, and
unlawful assemblies. Mobs will never do to govern States or
command armies. I was as sensible of it in 1770 as I am in
1787. To talk of liberty in such a state of things ! Is not a
Shattuck or a Shays as gi-eat a tyrant, when he would pluck
up law and justice by the roots, as a Bernard or a Hutchinson,
when he would overturn them partially ? You see I have not
forgotten old stories any more than you. I am sorry, however,
that you recollect the old afTair of the letters, in which I ever
believed you as innocent as myself, and more so, too. I had
long since forgotten it, or at least all unpleasant feelings occa-
sioned by it. Although those letters gave ofience to some men
whom I always esteemed, there were other sentiments in them
552 CORRESPONDENCE.
which contributed to apprise the continent early of what I was
about, and to prepare their minds for it. Those letters are the
first monument extant of the immortally glorious project of
Independence.! Instead of blushing at them altogether, I glory
in them, and so will my grandchild that I hope to see next
spring. You will oblige me much. Sir, by any communications
you can spare the time to make me.
TO PHILIP MAZZEI.
London, 12 June, 1787.
Your favor of the 24th of May is before me. To defend
the separation of the legislative, executive, judicial powers
from each other, and the division of the legislative into three
branches, from the attacks of county committees, riotous assem-
blies, and uninformed philosophers and statesmen, will be the
burden of my song, and I am very glad to find that the attempt
has met with your approbation. Such a distribution of power
appears to me the unum necessarium of liberty, safety, and good
order, and, therefore, no pains taken to preserve it will be thrown
away. An application has been made to me here in behalf of
a French writer, who is very capable of translating such a book,
and who wishes to publish an edition in French, in London.
His name is De la Tour. I have discouraged his project hitherto,
because Mr. Jefferson informed me that some one had under-
taken it in Paris. You inform me that several have applied to
government for permission. But will they obtain it? I am
just returned from an excursion to Amsterdam, where I was
told by a bookseller that he was about getting it translated
into Dutch. But I doubt whether any of these undertakers will
proceed; for American affairs are not now so interesting in
Europe as they were in the time of the war, and such a work
will not sell now as it would then. I should be glad to know
with certainty whether your bookseller has obtained permission,
and whether he will proceed, for the regulation of my own con-
1 The allusion is to the intercepted letters. See vol. ii. p. 411, note.
CORRESPONDENCE. 553
duct. Has he published his advertisement? I should think he
had better jDroceed with the first volume, without waiting for
the second, that he may form a better judgment, whether it is
worth his while to translate the second at all.
If the separate States preserve inviolable the divisions and
separations and independence of these several authorities, their
liberties, their security, their good order, prosperity, grandeur,
and glory will be the certain consequence, whatever imperfec-
tions may remain incurable in the confederation. But, if these
precautions are not taken, we shall have a capricious and a
turbulent, if not a bloody scene, in America for a hundred years
to come. So it appears to me, and no endeavors of mine shall
be wanting to secure the good and prevent the evil, however
unpopular I may make myself by the attempt.
R. H. 1,EE TO JOHN ADAMS.
New York, 3 September, 1787.
Since my letter to you of December, 1785, from Chantilly, in
Virginia, in answer to the letters that you were pleased to write
me on the 26th of August, 6th and 7th of September, 1785, I
have not been honored with any letter from you. On my arrival
here, I met with and read with great pleasure your book on the
American governments. The judicious collection that you
have made, with your just reflections thereon, have reached
America at a great crisis, and will probably have their proper
influence in forming the federal government now under consider-
ation. Your labor may, therefore, have its reward in the thanks
of this and future generations. The present federal system, how-
ever well calculated it might have been for its designed ends, if
the States had done their duty, under the almost total neglect
of that duty has been found quite inefficient and ineffectual.
The government must be both legislative and executive, with
the former power paramount to the State legislatures, in certain
respects essential to federal purposes. I think there is no doubt
but that this legislature will be recommended to consist of the
triple balance, if I may use the expression to signify a com-
VOL. IX. 47
/'
554 ~ CORRESPONDENCE.
pound of the three simple forms acting independently, but form-
ing ja. joint determination. The executive (which will be part
of the legislative) to have more duration, and power enlarged
beyond the present. This seems to be the plan expected, and
generally spoken of. I say expected, because the Convention is
yet sitting, and will continue so to do until the middle of this
month. I was appointed to that Assembly, but being a member
of Congress, where the plan of Convention must be approved,
there appeared an inconsistency for members of the former to
have session in the latter, and so pass judgment at New York
upon their opinion at Philadelphia. I therefore declined go-
ing to Convention, and came here, where we have lately con-
tracted for the sale of six millions of acres, on the north-western
side of Ohio, in the ceded territory, for lessening the domestic
debt. And now, another offer is made for two millions more.
I hope we shall at least be able to extinguish the domestic
debt created by the late war, which is by far the greatest part
of the debt. So many of oar members have lately gone from
hence to the Convention, that we have had but five States in
Congress for a month past, which has prevented any determina-
tion on your application to return. It seems at present to be
very doubtful whether there will be any resident appointed to
the Court where you are; some being for a minister, some for a
charge, and some for neither, but a consul only. How it will
terminate can scarcely be conjectured yet.
ARTHUR LEE TO JOHN ADAMS.
New York, 3 October, 1787.
I inclose you the long expected production of the Conven-
tion. I am inclined to think you will deem it somewhat too
aristocratic. An oligarchy, however, I think, will spring from
it in the persons of the Presidoit and the Vice-President, who,
if they understand one another, will easily govern the two
Houses to their will. The omission of a Declaration of Rights,
the appointment of a Vice-President, whose sole business seems
to be to intrigue, securing trial by jury in criminal cases only.
CORRESPONDENCE. 555
making the federal court original instead of appellant, and that
in the case of a citizen of any State and one of another, and
of a foreigner with the citizen of any State, the omission of a
council, and vesting legislative, executive and judicial powers
in the Senate, the making this Senate counsellors to the Presi-
dent, and judges on his impeachment, which may happen to be
for the very thing they have advised, are errors, if errors, gross
as a mountain. I say, if errors, for 1 am very much inclined to
believe they were designed.
Congress having three States represented by those who were
members of Convention, and three of the most influential, each
in three other States, resolved to send it on without any recom-
mendation, because its opponents insisted upon having their
reasons on the journals, if they offered to recommend it. The
States present were New Hampshire, two Convention men,
Massachusetts, two Convention, one not, Connecticut, one Con-
vention, one not. New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Dela-
ware, Virginia, one Convention, three not. North Carolina, one
Convention, one not. South Carolina, one Convention, one not,
Georgia, two Convention. Pennsylvania has ordered the State
"t^Ionvention to meet on the 3d of November to determine on its
adoption. All the other assemblies will direct Conventions
when they meet. From the present appearance of things, it
seems probable it will become our Constitution just as it is.
No opposition is declared to it but in V^irginia, where it will be
opposed, I imagine, by the Governor, Richard Henry Lee, Mr.
Mason, and Mr. Henry. In this State, the Governor and all his
friends are in opposition. I wish it may be amended, and can-
not see why it should not.
My brother, R. H. Lee, is here-, and desires to be affection-
ately remembered to you. Please to remember me to Mrs.
Adams, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and to my nephews, to whom 1
have not time to write. Adieu.
A. Lee.
556 CORRESPONDENCE.
TO BENJAMIN RUSH.
Braintree, 2 December, 1788.
A multiplicity of avocations have prevented me from answer-
ing your friendly letter of the 2dof July, till I am almost ashamed
to answer it at all. Your congratulations on my arrival and
kind reception are very agreeable, because I know them to be
sincere. Your compliments upon my poor volumes are consola-
tory, because they give me grounds to hope that they may have
done some good. It is an opinion here, that they contributed
somewhat to restore a permanent tranquillity to this common-
/ wealth, as well as to suppress the pestilent county conventions,
insurrections, and rebellion. And if I could be flattered into
the belief that they contributed to the formation or ratification
of a balanced national government for the United States, I
should sing my nunc dimiltis with much pleasure. If any one
will show me a single example where the laws were respected,
and liberty, property, life or character secure, without a balance
in the Constitution, I might venture to give up the controversy.
And if any one will show that there ever was a balance, or ever
can be a balance for three days together, without three branches,
and no more, I might also give up the point.
I have heard nothing of the second and third volumes in the
southern and middle States, and know not whether they have
been read or how received. For the third volume I was most
anxious, as it was the boldest and freest, and most likely to be
unpopular.
Whether your expectation, that I shall be in the new govern^
ment, proceeds from your partiality to your old friend, or from
your knowledge of the sentiments of the nation, I know not.
The choice will be in the breasts of freemen, and if it falls upon
me, it will most certainly be a free election.
You tell me my labors are only beginning. Seven-and-twenty
years have I labored in this rugged vineyard, and am now arrived
at an age when man sighs for repose.
My dear Mrs. Adams is with her only daughter at Long
Island. We have three sons, two at college, and one with an
eminent lawyer. They are regular in their manners and studies,
and give me so much satisfaction as to increase the regret I feel
CORRESPONDENCE. 557
at the remembrance of how much of their interests I have been
obliged to sacrifice to the public service.
TO THOMAS BRAND-HOLLIS.
Braintree, 3 December, 1788.
If I had been told at my first arrival, that five months would
pass before I should write a line to Mr. Brand-Hollis, I should
not have believed it. I found my estate, in consequence of a
total neglect and inattention on my part for fourteen years, was
falling to decay, and in so much disorder as to require my whole
attention to repair it. I have a great mind to essay a descrip-
tion of- it. It is not large, in the first place. It is but the farm
of a patriot. But there are in it two or three spots, from whence
are to be seen some of the most beautiful prospects in the world.
I wish the Hyde was within ten miles, or that Mr. Brand-Hollis
would come and build a Hyde near us. I have a fine meadow
that I would christen by the name of Hollis Mead, if it were not
too small. The hill where I now live is worthy to be called
Hollis Hill; but as only a small part of the top of it belongs to
me, it is doubtful whether it would succeed. There is a fine
brook, through a meadow, by my house; shall I call it Hollis
Brook ?
What shall I say to you of our public affairs ? The in-
crease of population is wonderful. The plenty of provisions
"of all kinds amazing, and cheap in proportion to their abund-
ance and the scarcity of money, which is certainly very great.
The agriculture, fisheries, manufactures, and commerce of the
country are very well, much better than I expected to find
them. I cannot say so much of our politics. The constancy
of the people in a course of annual elections has discarded from
their confidence almost all the old, stanch, firm patriots, who
conducted the revolution in all the civil departments, and has
called to the helm pilots much more selfish and much less skil-
ful. I cannot, however, lay all the blame of this upon the
people. Many of my brother patriots have flattered the people,
by telling them they had virtue, wisdom, and talents, which the
47*
558 CORRESPONDENCE.
people themselves have found out by experience they had not,
and this has disgusted them with their flatterers. The elections
for the new government have been determined very well, hitherto,
in general. You may have the curiosity to ask what share your
friend is to have. I really am at a loss to guess. The probabi-
lity at present seems to be, that I shall have no lot in it. I am
in the habit of balancing every thing. In one scale is vanity,
in the other comfort. Can you doubt which will preponderate?
Tn public life I have found nothing but the former, in private
life I have enjoyed much of the latter.
I regret the loss of the book-shops, and the society of the few
men of letters that I knew in London; in all other respects I
am much better accommodated here. Shall 1 hope to hear
from you as you have leisure ? A letter left at the New Eng-
land Coffee House will be brought me by some of our Boston
captains.
TO RICHARD PRICE.
New York, 20 May, 1789.
I last night received your friendly letter of March the 5th,
and am happy to find that I have a place in your remem-
brance. There are few portions of my life that I recollect
with more entire satisfaction than the hours I spent at Hack-
ney, under your ministry, and in private society, and conversa-
tion with you at other places. The approbation you are
pleased to express of my speculations on the subject of govern-
ment, is peculiarly agreeable t6 me, because it goes a great way
to convince me that the end I had in view has been in some
degree answered, and will be more so. It was not to obtain a
name as an author, or a reputation for literary talents, that I
undertook the laborious work. If such had been my object, I
certainly should have taken more time to digest and connect it.
But it appeared to me, that my countrymen were running wild,
and into danger, from a too ardent and inconsiderate pursuit of
erroneous opinions of government, which had been propagated
among them by some of their ill informed favorites, and by
various writings which were very popular among them, such as
CORRESPONDENCE. 559
the pamphlet called Common Sense, for one example, among
many others; particularly Mrs. Macaulay's History, Mr. Bm-gh's
Political Disquisitions, Mr. Turgot's _ letters. These writings
are all excellent in some respects, and very useful, but extremely
mistaken in the true construction of a free government. To
jaccomplish the good I had in view, I thought it would be more
useful and efliectual, to lay facts, principles, examples, and
reasonings before my countrymen, from the writings of others,
than in my own name. This has given an air of pedantry to
the books, which I despise ; but it has answered the end in a
manner more effectual than if I had contrived it with more art
to promote my own reputation. Our new Constitution is
formed, in part, upon its principles, and the enlightened part of
our communities are generally convinced of the necessity of
adopting it, by degrees, more completely.
Your monthly reviewers thought themselves very sagacious
in conjecturing that I had a point to carry! They will now, I
suppose, glorify themselves in the belief that their conjecture
was right, and that I have carried my point. Shrewd, however,
as they think themselves, they are mistaken. Had my books
been contrived for any selfish purpose, they would have cer-
tainly been modelled in a more popular manner. If those
writings have contributed to procure me the confidence of my
fellow-citizens, I shall rejoice in them the more as a sure proof
that they have convinced many already, and that they will con-
tinue to operate a complete reformation of every thing yet
wrong, and produce in the end what I think the most perfect
form of government. I am now very happy with our illustrious
chief and many of my old friends, and firmly trust in the good-
ness of Providence for aids to accomplish the great work of
forming institutions for a great continent, which may leave
them their liberty and happiness for many generations.
TO HENRY MARGHANT.
New York, 18 August, 1789
I have received your kind and obliging letter of the 16th of
July, and am sorry that the extreme heat of the weather, and a
560 CORRESPONDENCE.
constant attendance on the duties of an office which is some-
what laborious and fatiguing, have prevented my giving it an
earlier answer. The approbation you are pleased to express
of my public conduct, is a great satisfaction to me. It is true
that I have run through a course of dangers, hardships, and
fatigues, by sea and land, and a series of perplexed negotiations
among various nations, and at different courts, which have
never fallen to the lot of any other American, and scarcely to
any other man. But although I may flatter myself that under
the favor of Heaven I have had as much success as could have
been rationally expected, yet I find myself obliged with you to
lament that our countrymen have not availed themselves of the
advantages which Providence has placed in their power. After
a generous contest for liberty, of twenty years' continuance, Ame-
ricans forgot wherein liberty consisted. After a bloody war in
defence of property, they forgot that property was sacred. After
an arduous struggle for the freedom of commerce, they voluntarily
shackled it with arbitrary trammels. After fighting for justice
as the end of government, they seemed determined to banish
that virtue from the earth. Rhode Island has carried all these
errors to their extremes, but there is not any State in the Union
which is wholly free from the same mistakes. I should deno-
minate this conduct guilty as well as erroneous, if I were not
sensible that it has been owing to the loss of that balance in
our government which can alone preserve wisdom or virtue in
society. The whole continent seems at present sensible that
much has been wrong, and desirous of reformation. But there
are obstacles in the way, among which the unnatural conduct
of Rhode Island is not the least. You will add greatly to your
merits towards your country by your exertions to bring your
fellow-citizens into a right way of thinking in this respect.
It is very true that several of those loose conjectures of an
imagination, wandering into futurity, which you are pleased to
dignify with the magnificent appellation of " prophetic declara-
tions," have been brought to pass in a singular manner, for some
of which I had much less reason to offer than for that which has
not been accomplished relative to yourself. This, however, is
still not impossible, nor perhaps improbable. The solemn decla-
ration, which you call prophetic, and say has come to pass, made
on the floor of Congress, respecting the late confederation, just
CORRESPONDENCE. 561
as we had closed it, I do not distinctly recollect. I should be
much obliged to you if you would write me as particular an
account of it as you can recollect.^ Hcec olim meminisse juva-
bit.
I must now thank you for your polite and friendly attention
to my family when at Newport. They speak with much grati-
tude of the civilities they received both there and at Providence,
and we live in hopes of seeing you in Senate before another
year is completed.
TO SILVANUS BOURN.
New York, 30 August, 1789.
I have received your letter of the 18th of this month, and have
communicated that to the President which was inclosed in it.
The particular office you solicit by that letter will be sought by
numbers, and among them probably will be men advanced in
life, encumbered with large families, in necessitous circum-
stances perhaps occasioned by public services, by depreciated
public promises, &c. The President will, as he ought, weigh
all these particulars, and give the preference upon the whole as
justice, humanity, and wisdom shall dictate. There is another
gentleman who has applied for it, whose pretensions, perhaps,
will have great weight, and will be supported by recommenda-
tions of the first sort.
I must caution you, my dear Sir, against having any depend-
ence on my influence or that of any other person. No man, I
believe, has influence with the President. He seeks information
from all quarters, and judges more independently than any man
I ever knew. It is of so much importance to the public that he
should preserve this superiority, that I hope I shall never see
the time that any man will have influence with him beyond
the powers of reason and argument.
Who is it, pray, that has been honoring Vice in poetry ?
' See vol. iii. p. 70, note.
J 2
562 CORRESPONDENCE.
TO JAMES SULLIVAN.
New York, 17 September, 1789.
In your letter of the 18th of August, you ask why we may
not have as much paper in circulation in proportion to our cir-
culating silver and gold, as Great Britain has in proportion
to hers. Give me leave to answer you without hesitation.
We may, as soon as we shall have any credit. We have
none. No man of common sense will trust us. As long as
an unlimited democracy tyrannized over the rich, no man of
property was safe. If ever an unlimited aristocracy shall
tyrannize over the poor and the moderately rich at once, the
greater portion of society wdll not dare to trust the less. But
if a government well ordered, mixed, and counterpoised should
take place, and in consequence of it the commandment, " Thou
shalt not steal," be observed, then and not till then you may
circulate what paper you may find necessary. But I doubt
very much whether our circumstances will require any paper at
all. The cash paid in imposts will immediately be paid to cre-
ditors, and by them circulated in society.
TO MARSTON WATSON.
Braintree, 7 November, 1789.
The letter you did me the honor to write me on the 30th of
September has been to New York, and from thence transmitted
to this place ; but it never reached my hand till the night before
last. The sentiments of esteem for my private character, ex-
pressed by gentlemen who are probably strangers to me, are
very obliging, and the approbation of my public conduct abroad
lays me under still greater obligations.
The fisheries are so essential to the commerce and naval
power of this nation, that it is astonishing that any one citizen
should ever have been found indifferent about them. But it is
certain that at a time when there were reasons to expect that
more than one foreign nation would endeavor to deprive us of
CORRESPONDENCE. 563
them, there were many Americans indifferent, and not a few
even disposed to give them away. A knowledge of this was
the first and strongest motive with me to embark for Europe a
first and a second time. After all, however, the final preserva-
tion of the fisheries was owing to causes so providential, that I
can never look back upon them without reverence and emotion.
Your approbation. Sir, and that of your friends, of the part I
acted in that negotiation, give me great pleasure.
The present of four boxes of fish has been received in my
absence by my family ; and is in every point of view very
acceptable to me. As an amateur, I shall regale myself and my
friends; as a wellwisher to the trade, I shall endeavor to make
the dish fashionable at New York. I pray you and your com-
panions to accept of my sincere thanks for the favor, and my
best wishes for their pleasure, profit, and prosperity in the pro-
secution of the fisheries. May you and they live to see a com-
merce and a naval power growing out of your occupations,
which shall render this the first and most respectable of mari-
time nations I
TO RICHARD PRICE.
New York, 19 April, 1790.
My dear Friend, — Accept of my best thanks for your favor
of February 1st, and the excellent discourse ^ that came with it,
I love the zeal and the spirit which dictated this discourse, and
admire the general sentiments of it. From the year 1760 to
this hour, the whole scope of my life has been to support such
principles and propagate such sentiments. No sacrifices of my-
self or my family, no dangers, no labors, have been too much
for me in this great cause. The revolution in France could
not therefore be indifferent to me ; but I have learned by awful
experience to rejoice with trembling. I know that encyclope- j
dists and economists, Diderot and D'Alembert, Voltaire and
Rousseau, have contributed to this great event more than Sid-
ney, Locke, or Hoadley, perhaps more than the American revo- ,
1 On the Love of Country. This sermon was the occasion of Burke's Reflec-
tions on the French Revolution.
564 CORRESPONDENCE.
(I lution; and I own to you, I know not what to make of a re-
\| public of thirty million atheists. The Constitution is but an
experiment, and must and will be altered. I know it to be
t^ impossible that France should be long governed by it. If the
sovereignty is to reside in one assembly, the king, princes of the
blood, and principal quality, will govern it at their pleasure as
long as they can agree ; when they differ, they will go to war,
and act over again all the tragedies of Valois, Bourbons, Lor-
raines. Guises, and Colignis, two hundred years ago. The
Greeks sung the praises of Harmodius and Aristogiton for restor-
ing equal laws. Too many Frenchmen, after the example of
too many Americans, pant for equality of persons and property.
The impracticability of this, God Almighty has decreed, and
the advocates for liberty, who attempt it, will surely suffer
for it.
I thank you. Sir, for your kind compliment. As it has been
the great aim of my life to be useful, if I had any reason to
think I was so, as you seem to suppose, it would make me
happy. For "eminence" I care nothing; for though I pretend
not to be exempt from ambition, or any other human passion, I
have been convinced from my infancy and have been confirmed
every year and day of my life, that the mechanic and peasant
are happier than any nobleman, or magistrate, or king, and that
the higher a man rises, if he has any sense of duty, the more
anxious he must be. Our new government is an attempt to
divide a sovereignty ; a fresh essay at imperium in imperio. It
cannot, therefore, be expected to be very stable or very firm. It
will prevent us for a time from drawing our swords upon each
other, and when it will do that no longer, we must call a new
Convention to reform it. The difficulty of bringing millions to
agree in any measures, to act by any rule, can never be conceived
by him who has not tried it. It is incredible how small is the
number, in any nation, of those who comprehend any system of
constitution or administration, and those few it is wholly im-
possible to unite. I am a sincere inquirer after truth, but I find
very few who discover the same truths. The Jimg ^f Prussia
\ has found one which has also faUen in my way. " That it is
the peculiar quality of the human understanding, that example
' should correct no man. The blunders of the father are lost to
his children, and every generation must commit its own." I
CORRESPONDENCE. 565
have never sacrificed my judgment to kings, ministersj^ nor_
people, and I never will. When either shall see as I do, I shall
rejoice in their protection, uitl, and honor; but I see no pro-
spect that either will ever think as I do, and therefore I shall
never be a favorite with either. I do not desire to be ; but I
sincerely wish and devoutly pray, that a hundred years of civil
wars may not be the portion of all Europe for want of a
little attention to the true elements of the science of govern-
ment. With sentiments, moral sentiments, which are and
must be eternal, I am your friend, &c.
TO BENJAMIN RUSH.
New York, 18 April, 1790.
Your letter of April 13th soars above the visible, diurnal
sphere. I own to you that avarice, ambition, the love of fame,
&c., are all mysterious passions. They are the greatest absurd-
ities, delusions, and follies that can be imagined, if in this life
only we had hope. In the boat, on our return from Point-no-
Point, the principal topic of conversation was independence.
My sentiments on this head were no secret in Congress from
May, 1775. An intercepted letter early in 1775 had informed
the world that I was for independence. But I was left too much
alone. The company in the boat appeared to me then and
ever since to have invited me to be of their party that they
might all assure me in that confidential manner that they were
of my mind and would ultimately support me. There was not
one of the company, I believe, who in the course of the passage
did not repeatedly assure me that in his opinion we must be
independent. That evening's conversation was a great comfort
to me ever after.
How many follies and indiscreet speeches do your minutes
in your note-book bring to my recollection, which I had forgot-
ten forever! Alas! I fear I am not yet much more prudent
Your character of Mr. Paine is very well and very just. To the
accusation against me which you have recorded in your note-
book of the 17th of March last, I plead not guilty. I^ny an
VOL. IX. 48
566
CORRESPONDENCE.
V
J
attachment to monarchy, and I deny that I have- changed my
principles since 1776. No letter of mine to Mr. Hooper was ever
printed that I know of. Indeed, I have but a very confused
recollectioii of having ever written him any letter. If any letter
has been printed in my name, I desire to see it. You know
that a letter of mine to Mr. Wythe was printed by Dunlap, in
January, 1776, under the title of "Thoughts on Government, in
a letter from a gentleman to his friend." In that pamphlet I
recommended a legislature in three independent branches, and
to such a legislature I am still attached. But I own that at
that time I understood very little of the subject, and, if I had
changed my opinions, should have no scruple to avow it. I
own that awful experience has concurred with reading and
reflection, to convince me that Americans are more rapidly dis-
posed to corruption in elections that I thought they were four-
teen years ago.
My friend Dr. Rush will excuse me, if I caution him against
' a fraudulent use of the words monarchy and republic. _! am a
mortal and irreconcilable enemy to monarchy. I am no friend
to hereditary limited monarchy in America. This I know can
never be admitted without an hereditary Senate to control it,
and a hereditary nobility or Senate in America I know to be
{ unattainable and impracticable. I should scarcely be for it, if
it were. Do not, therefore, my friend, misunderstand me and
misrepresent me to posterity. I am for a balance between the
legislative and executive powers, and I am for enabling the
executive to be at all times capable of maintaining the balance
between the Senate and House, or in other words, between the
aristocratical and democratical interests. Yet I am for having
all three brajiches elected at Stated periods, and these elections,
I hope, will continue until the people shall be convinced that
fortune, providence, or chance, call it which you will, is better
. than election. If the time should come when corruption shall
be added to intrigue and manoeuvre in elections, and produce
civil war, then, in my opinion, chance will be better than choice
for all but the House of Representatives.
Accept rny thanks for your polite and obliging invitation to
Philadelphia. Nothing would give me more pleasure than such
a visit; but I must deny myself that satisfaction. I know I
have friends in Pennsylvania, and such as I esteem very much
CORRESPONDENCE. 567
as friends of virtue, liberty, and good government. Wliat you
mean by "more than British degrees of corruption" at New
York, and by "sophisticated government," I know not. The
continent is a kind of whispering gallery, and acts and speeches
are reverberated round from New York in all directions. The
report is very loud at a distance, when the whisper is very gentle
in the centre. But if you see such corruption in your country-
men, on what do you found your hopes? I lament the deplor-
able condition of my country, which seems to be under such a
fatality that the people can agree upon nothing. When they
seem to agree, they are so unsteady that it is but for a moment.
That changes may be made for the better, is probable. I know
of no change that would occasion much danger, but that of
President. I wish very heartily that a change of Vice-President
could be made to-morrow. I have been too ill-used in the office
to be fond of it ; — if I had not been introduced into it in a
manner that made it a disgrace. I will never serve in it again
upon such terms. Though I have acted in public with immense
multitudes, 1 have had few friends, and those certainly not inter-
ested ones. These I shall love in public or private. Adieu.
TO ALEXANDER JARDINE.
New York, 1 June, 1790.
I take the opportunity by General Mansell to acknowledge
the receipt of your polite letter of the 29th May, 1789, and to
present you my thanks for the valuable present of your enter-
taining travels.^ Your compliments upon so hasty a production
as my book, are very flattering. It would give me pleasure to
pursue the subject through all the known governments, and to
correct or rather new-make the whole work. But my life is
destined to labor of a much less agreeable kind. I know not
how it is, but mankind have an aversion to the study of the
science of government. Is it because the subject is dry? To
me, no romance is more entertaining. Those who take the lead
in revolutions are seldom well informed, and they commonly
1 Letters from Barbary, France, Spain, Portugal, &c., in two volumes.
568 CORKESPONDENCE.
take more pains to inflame their own passions and those of
society, than to discover truth ; and very few of those who have
just ideas have the courage to pursue them. I know by ex-
perience that in revolutions the most fiery spirits and flighty
geniuses frequently obtain more influence than men of sense
and judgment, and the weakest men may carry foolish measures
in opposition to wise ones proposed by the ablest. France is in
great danger from this quarter. The desire of change in Europe
is not wonderful. Abuses in religion and government are so
numerous and oppressive to the people, that a reformation must
take place, or a general decline. The armies of monks, soldiers,
and courtiers were become so numerous and costly, that the
labor of the rest was not enough to maintain them. Either
reformation or depopulation must come.
I am so well satisfied of my own principles, that I think them
as eternal and unchangeable as the earth and its inhabitants.
I know mankind must finally adopt a balance between the
executive and legislative powers, and another balance between
the poor and the rich in the legislature, and quarrel till they
come to that conclusion. But how long they must quarrel
before they agree in the inference, I know not.
TO THOMAS BRAND-HOLLIS.
New York, 1 June, 1 790.
Nothing mortifies me more than the difficulty I find to
maintain that correspondence with you, which, when I left
England, I thought would be some consolation to me for the
loss of your conversation.
We proceed by degrees to introduce a little order into this
country, and my public duties require so much of my time that
I have little left for private friendships, however dear to me.
By General Mansell I send you a small packet which will give
you some idea of our proceedings. The French seem to be very
zealous to follow our example. I wish they may not too ex-
actly copy our greatest errors, and suffer in consequence of them
greater misfortunes than ours. They will find themselves under
CORRESPONDENCE. 509
a necessity of treading back some of their too nasty steps, as
we have done.
I am situated on the majestic bariks of the Hudson, in com-
parison of which your Thames is but a rivulet, and surrounded
with all the beauties and sublimities of nature. Never did I
live in so delightful a spot. I would give, what would I not
give to see you here ? Your library and your cabinets of ele-
gant and costly curiosities would be an addition to such a
situation, which in this country would attract the attention of
all. In Europe they are lost in the crowd. Come over and pur-
chase a paradise here, and be the delight and admiration of a
new world. Marry one of our fine girls, and leave a family to
do honor to human nature, when you can do it no longer in
person. Franklin is no more, and we have lately trembled for
Washington. Thank God, he has recovered from a dangerous
sickness and is likely now to continue many years. His life is
of vast importance for us. Is there any probability of a fer-
mentation in England, sufficient to carry off' any of her distem-
pers? I wish her happy and prosperous, but I wish she would
adopt the old maxim, " Live and let live." Will there be a
complete revolution in Europe, both in religion and govern-
ment? Where will the present passions and principles lead,
and in what will they end ? In more freedom and humanity, I
am clear. But when or how? My affectionate regards to Dr.
Price, and all our good friends; and believe me yours dum
spiro, &c.
Rhode Island is to become one of us, on the 29th May.
TO THOMAS BRAND-HOLLIS.
New York, 11 June, 1790.
I have received your kind letter of March 29th, and the packet
of pamphlets, and I pray you to accept of my best thanks for
both. I sent you lately, by General Mansell, some of our rough
matters. The boxes of books you sent by Captain Bernard,
arrived safely, I know. You seem to suppose our coast in
danger from African pirates. In this I presume you are de-
48*
570 CORRESPONDENCE.
ceived by the artifices of the London insurance offices, for we are
in no more danger than the empire of China is. The great revo-
lution in France is wonderful, but not supernatural. The hand
of Providence is in it, I doubt not, working, however, by natural
and ordinary means, such as produced the reformation in religion
in the sixteenth century. That all men have one common nature,
is a principle which will now universally prevail, and equal rights
and equal duties will in a just sense, I hope, be inferred from it.
But equal ranks and equal property never can be inferred from
it, any more than equal understanding, agility, vigor, or beauty.
Equal laws are all that ever can be derived from human equal-
r/ ity. I am delighted with Doctor Price's sermon on patriotisnij
but there is a sentiment or two which I should explain a little.
He guards his hearers and readers very judiciously against the
extreme of adulation and contempt. " The former is the ex-
treme," he says, "to which mankind in general have been most
prone." The generality of rulers have treated men as your Eng-
lish jockeys treat their horses, convinced them first that they
were their masters, and next that they were their friends; at least
they have pretended to do so. Mankind have, I agree, behaved
too much like horses ; been rude, wild, and mad, until they
were mastered, and then been too tame, gentle, and dull. T
think our friend should have stated it thus. The great and
perpetual distinction in civilized societies, has been between the
rich, who are few, and the poor, who are many. When the
many are masters, they are too unruly, and then the few are
too tame, and afraid to speak out the truth. When the few are
masters, they are too severe, and then the many are too servile.
This is the strict truth. The few have had most art and union,
and therefore have generally prevailed in the end. The inference
of wisdom from these premises is, that neither thej)oor nor the
.rich should ever be suffered to be masters. They should have
equal pov^'^er to defend themselves ; and that their power may be
always equal, there should be an independent mediator between
them, always ready, always able, and always interested to assist
the weakest. Equal laws can never be made or maintained
without this balance. You see I still hold fast my scales, and
weigh every thing in them. The French must finally become
my disciples, or rather the disciples of Zeno, or they will have
no equal laws, no personal liberty, no property, no lives.
CORRESPONDENCE. 571
I am very inucn employed in business, and this must be my
apology for neglecting so much to write to you ; but I will be
as good a correspondent as I can. I hope you will not forget
your old friend. In this country the pendulum has vibrated too 1/
far to the popular side, driven by men without experience or /^
judgment, and horrid ravages have been made upon property by
arbitrary multitudes or majorities of multitudes. France has
severe trials to endure from the same cause. Both have found,
or will find, that to place property at the mercy of a majority
who have no property, is ^'- committer e ag-num lupoP My funda-
mental maxim of government is, never to trust the lamb to the
custody of the wolf If you are not perfectly of my mind at
present, I hereby promise and assure you that you will live to
see that I am precisely right. Thus arrogantly concludes your [/
assured friend.
TO THOMAS WELSH.
New York, 13 September, 1790.
My dear Dr. Welsh, — I received your letter before my
departure for Philadelphia, but had not time to answer it. It
is not probable that any special agents will be employed in the
business you had in contemplation. The board consists of men
who will study economy in that as well as in all other affairs com-
mitted to their charge, and therefore the loan officers or collect-
ors, or some other known character, will have this additional duty
annexed to him without any other reward than the honor of it,
as 1 suppose. I have much satisfaction in finding my son in
your family. What the conjunctions and oppositions of two
such political planets may produce, I know not. Politics are
bred in the bones of both of you; but your good example will
teach him, I hope, to take politics by way of amusement or
spectacle, without ever suffering their interference with your
professions. I recollect the painful years I suffered from 1758,
when I was sworn at Boston, to the year 1761, too perfectly not
to sympathi^^e with John. Do not let him flatter himself with
hopes of a run of business, which is neither to be expected, nor
572 CORRESPONDENCE.
would be beneficial. His business is to study and be constant
to his office, and in court. Causes and clients will come soon
enough for his benefit, if he does that. " My knowledge of the
law cost me seven years' hard study in that great chair," said
John Read, who had as great a genius and became as eminent
as any man. " Attend to the study of the law rather than the
gain of it," said my master Gridley to me ; and I recollect the
precept with sufficient pleasure to recommend it to any of my
sons. I can ill afford to maintain my sons at their studies, but
I had Irather do that than have them overwhelmed with a run
of business, at first, which must put an end to their studies. If
a father's partiality has not deceived me very much, John is as
great a scholar as this country has produced at his age, and I
know he possesses a spirit that will not stoop to dishonorable
practice or conduct. I am therefore perfectly at ease in my
mind about his success. Whether his reputation spreads this
year, or two or three years hence, is indifferent to me, provided
his anxiety does not injure his health. I have seen too many
flashing insects in my day glitter and glare for a moment, and.
then disappear, to wish that my sons may add to the number.
TO JOHN TRUMBULL.
Philadelphia, 23 January, 1791.
I have been so much of an anti-economist, as to leave your
letter of June the 5th unanswered to this day. " The Defence
of the American Constitutions" is not, I apprehend, a "misno-
mer." Had the patriots of Amsterdam repulsed the duke of
Brunswick from the Harlaem gate, a history of the action might
have properly been called an " account of the defence of Amster-
dam," although the city on the side of the Leyden gate and
Utrecht gate had been so ill fortified as to have been indefen-
sible, had the Prussian attack been made on either of these
quarters. My three volumes are a defence of the American
Constitutions on that side on which they are attacked. Mr.
Turgot attacked them for aiming at three orders and a balance.
I defended them in this point only. Had he attacked them for
CORRESPONDENCE. 573
not making their orders distinct and independent enough, or
for not making their balances complete, I should have been the
last man in the world to have undertaken their defence. If
another edition should ever be published, I would insert in the
title page : " A defence, &c., against the attack of M. Turgot." (^
This, I apprehend, would cure all ^Selects In point of title.
But, as you observe, the feelings of mankind are so much
against any rational theory, that I find my labor has all been in
vain, and it is not worth while to take any more pains upon
the subject. The rivalry between jthe_State governments and
the National government, is growing daily more active and
ardent. Thirteen strong men, embracing thirteen pillars at
once, and bov/ing themselves in concert, will easily pull down
a frail edifice. If the superiority of the national government is
not more clearly acknowledged, we shall soon be in a confu-
sion which we shall not get out of for twenty years. There
was never more occasion for firmness in all who wish in sin-
cerity for peace, liberty, or safety.
The Secretary of the Treasury is all that you think him.
There is no office in the government better filled. It is unhappy
that New York has taken away one of his supports. Your
sentiments of other characters, and of measures in general,
appear to me to be so just that I cannot but wish that you had
more to do in public affairs. But they say that you "love wit
better than your friend," and although I do not believe this, I
expect from you for this piece of information, by way of revenge,
a sheet or two of their sarcasms upon me. I know that although
the ridiculous can never escape your observation in a friend or
an enemy, yet you love the former and have no ill will against
the latter. The independence of your fame and fortune, and
your happiness in private life, are more to be envied than any
public office or station. For myself, I find the office I hold,
jthou^h Jaboriousj so wholly insignificant, and, from the blind
policy of that part of the world from whence I came^o stupidly
pinched and betrayed, that I wish myself again at_the bar, old
as I am. My own situation is almost the only one in the world,
in which firmness and patience are useless. I have derived so
much pleasure from your correspondence, that, notwithstanding
the long interruption of it, I hope you will not deny it in future
to your friend and humble servant.
674 CORRESPONDENCE.
TO HANNAH ADAMS.
Philadelphia, 10 March, 1791.
I have this day received your obliging letter of the 21st of
February, including a copy of a proposed dedication. Your
request of my permission to dedicate to me the second edition
of your View of Religions, is very flattering to me, because,
although I am ashamed to acknowledge I have never seen the
book, I know its reputation to be very respectable, not only in
this country, but in Europe. Although I am conscious that
some of the compliments intended me have not been so well
merited as I wish they had been, I shall leave to your inclina-
tion and discretion every thing of that kind ; only requesting
that all titles, literary or political, may be omitted, and that the
address may be only to John Adams, Vice-President of the
United States of America. If you please, you may receive me
into the list of your subscribers for three copies bound.
You and I are undoubtedly related by birth, although per-
sonally unknown to each other, and although we were both
" born in humble obscurity," yet I presume neither of us has
any cause to regret that circumstance. If I could ever suppose
that family pride were any way excusable, I should think a
descent from a line of virtuous, independent New England
farmers for a hundred and sixty years, was a better foundation
for it than a descent through royal or noble scoundrels ever
since the flood.
I am, Miss Adams, very sincerely your well wisher.
TO JOSEPH WARD.
Philadelphia, 6 April, 1797.
I received yesterday your favor of the 27th of March, for
which I thank you.
The strain of joy at a late event, and of panegyric on the sub-
ject of it, serve, among some other instances, to convince me
that old friendships, when they are well preserved, become very
CORRESPONDENCE. 575
strong. The friends of my youth are generally gone ; the friends
of my early political life are chiefly departed ; of the few that
remain, some have been found on the late occasion, weak, en-
vious, jealous, and spiteful, humiliated, and mortified, and duped
enough by French finesse and Jacobinical rascality, to show it
to me and to the world. Others have been found faithful and
true, generous and manly. From these I have received letters
and tokens of approbation and friendship, in a style of ardor,
zeal, and exultation, similar to yours.
Your postscript is a morsel of exquisite beauty and utility.
My life will undoubtedly depend in a great measure on my
observance of it. The labor of my office is very constant and
very severe, and before this time you will have seen enough to
convince you that my prospects, as well as yours, are grave. I
should be much obliged to you for your sentiments, and those
of the people in general about you, concerning what ought to
be done.
TO HENRY GUEST.
Philadelphia, 3 January, 1799.
I have just received your favor of the 1st of this month, and
am much pleased that you think my answers to addresses
patient, fatherly, and patriotic. I believe with you in the pro-
found patriotism at the bottom of the hearts of our countrymen
very universally. Clitus, I think, describes the ship in more
danger than she is.
I received the panegyric on General Anchoret, and a political
speech, and read them with pleasure.
The coat of mail, if it answers your description, must be a
useful invention. Do you think the French will come here with
their bayonets to pierce it ?
I care very little what shall be ^vritten on my gravestone,
only I hope it will tell no untruth. I like your epitaph as well
as any.
" Who British, French, and Moorish bribes withstood,
Not for his o^jn but for his country's good."
576 CORRESPONDENCE.
As I do not choose to correspond with any one who is asham-
ed of his correspondent, I shall certainly frank this letter, for to
you it will not be worth the postage.
TO DR. OGDEN.
Washington, 3 December, 1800.
I have received, this evening, your favor of the 26th Novem-
ber, with the pamphlet inclosed.^ I have run it over in more
haste than it was written in, but am so far possessed of its
purport as to be better pleased that it was written in thirty
hours, than if it had been the elaborate production of a week,
because it shows the first impressions of the writer upon read-
ing the pamphlet it is an answer to. This last pamphlet I regret
more on account of its author than on my own, because I am
confident it will do him more harm than me. I am not his
enemy, and never was. I have not adored him, like his idol-
aters, and have had great cause to disapprove of some of his
politics. He has talents, if he would correct himself, which
might be useful. There is more burnish, however, on the out-
side, than sterling silver in the substance. He threatened his
master, Washington, sometimes with pamphlets upon his cha-
racter and conduct, and Washington, who had more regard to
his reputation than I have, I say it with humility and mortifica-
tion, might be restrained by his threats, but I dread neither his
menaces of pamphlets nor the execution of them. It would
take a large volume to answer him completely. I have not time,
and, if I had, I would not employ it in such a work, while I am
in public office. The public indignation he has excited is
punishment enough. I thank you, Sir, for this valuable present
I shall preserve it for my children.
TO F. A. VANDERKEMP.
"Wasliington, 28 December, 1800.
I had last night your letter of the 12th, the friendly sentiments
of which have tenderly affected me. The affliction in my family
1 " A letter to Major-General Hamilton, by a Citizen."
CORRESPONDENCE. 577
from the melancholy death of a once beloved son, has been very-
great, and has required the consolation of religion, as well as
philosophy, to enable us to support it. The prospects of that
unfortunate youth were very pleasing and promising, but have
been cut off, and a wife and two very young children are left
with their grandparents to bewail a fate, which neither could
avert, and to which all ought in patience to submit. I have
two sons left, whose conduct is worthy of their education and
connections. I pray that their lives may be spared and their
characters respected.
Before this reaches you, the news will be familiar to you, that
after the 3d of March I am to be a private citizen and your
brother farmer. I shall leave the State with its coffers full, and
the fair prospects of a peace with all the world smiling in its
face, its commerce flourishing, its navy glorious, its agriculture
uncommonly productive and lucrative. O, my country ! May
peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces.
TO ELBRIDGE GERRY.
Wasliington, 30 December, 1800.
I have received your favor of the 18th. It has been an inva-
riable usage these twelve years for the President to answer no
letters of solicitation or recommendation to office ; but with
you, in full confidence, I will say, that it is uncertain whether I
shall appoint any consuls to France. Mr. Lee is represented to
me as a Jacobin, who was very busy in a late election in the
town of Roxbury, on the \M:ong side. His pretensions, how-
ever, shall be considered with all others impartially, if I should
make any appointments.
Your anxiety for the issue of the election is, by this time,
allayed. How mighty a power is the spirit of party ! How
decisive and unanimous it is ! Seventy-three for Mr. Jefferson
and seventy-three for Mr. Burr. May the peace and welfare of
the country be promoted by this result ! But I see not the way
as yet. In the case of Mr. Jefferson, there is nothing wonderful ;
but Mr. Burr's good fortune surpasses all ordinary rules, and
VOL. IX. 49 K2
578 CORRESPONDENCE.
exceeds that of Bonaparte. All the old patriots, all the splendid
talents, the long experience, both of federalists and antifederalists,
must be subjected to the humiliation of seeing this dexterous
gentleman rise, like a balloon, filled with inflammable air, over
then- heads. And this is not the worst. What a discouragement
to all virtuous exertion, and what an encouragement to party
intrigue, and corruption ! "What course is it we steer, and to
what harbor are we bound? Say, man of wisdom and expe-
rience, for I am wholly at a loss.
I thank you. Sir, and Mrs. Gerry, for your kind condolence
with us in our affliction, under a very melancholy and distress-
ing bereavement. I thank the Supreme that I have yet two
sons, who will give me some consolation by a perseverance in
those habits of virtue and industry which they have hitherto
preserved. There is nothing more to be said, but let the Eter-
nal w^ill be done !
CHRISTOPHER GADSDEN TO JOHN ADAMS.
Charleston, 11 March, 1801.
For five or six years past, at least, very rarely have I been
seen from home, (or Avished to be,) excepting at church or fune-
rals ; but my duty to my country and to our old standbys,
though now in my seventy-eighth, compelled me in our late
election to take up my feeble pen again, at least to show my
good will and inclination ; and though many able hands were
not wanting, yet sorry am I to say, all our efforts failed.
Many well-earned honors have the United States conferred
on you. Had they added one more, a second invitation to the
Presidency, it would have been not only what your long, faith-
ful, important, and useful services might have reasonably
expected, as a public acknowledgment and concurrence with
all the world in your able and successful discharge of your first
appointment, and of all your many other important trusts, but
also what, in my humble opinion, sound policy seemed to dic-
tate. God grant that the recollection of your ungrateful treat-
ment may not deter truly firm, virtuous men from venturing
their names to be held up to the public on such elections! I
CORRESPONDENCE. 579
am not without my suspicions, that foreign meddlers must have
had this deep political slyness in view.
Many of our new-comers cajoled and imposed upon by emis-
saries from without, and egged on by a numerous or rather
innumerable tribe of young law-followers amongst ourselves,
especially in the circuits, have brought on a strange renverse-
ment in our State. Our old-standers and independent men of
long well-tried patriotism, sound understanding, and good pro-
perty, have now in general very little influence in our public
matters. Our too easy admittance of strangers has entangled
us in this evil, and when or where it will end, God only knows!
But here, my dear Sir, I must confess my own credulity and
shortsightedness, who was amongst the most zealous in that
over-hasty and not sufficientl}^ guarded step, which we now
have great reason to lament as big with innumerable mischiefs.
Our worthy deceased friend John Rutledge, looking farther,
was for giving them every reasonable protection and encourage-
ment, but for admitting only their sons born amongst us into
such complete citizenship as to vote either at State or Congress
elections ; and when unsuccessful in this point, was then for
extending the time to ten years at least. Had even this been
carried, it would have given new-comers full time to look so
deliberately about them, as greatly to have deterred and hin-
dered all designing tamperers and deceivers in most of their
infernal views and mischievous suggestions; and much better,
in all probability, would this have been for the peace, safety,
and lasting political security of both.
You must have heard of and admired the open, honorable
behavior of General Pinckney in our State election ; that he
would listen to no proposals of composition whatever, but per-
sisted, from first to last, to stand or fall with you. I know you
cannot want any consolation in this matter beyond your own
breast. The firm, well-grounded complacency there, is, I am
sure, amply sufficient to dispense with any thing exterior.
Long have I been led to think our planet a mere bedlam, and
the uncommonly extravagant ravings of our own times, espe-
cially for a few years past, and still in the highest rant, have
greatly increased and confirmed that opinion. Look round our
whirling globe, my friend, where you will, east, west, north, or
south, where is the spot in which are not many thousands of
580 CORRESPONDENCE.
these mad lunatics? But not a few strong symptoms seem
now loudly to proclaim that this terrible, catching epidemic
cannot be far from its crisis ; and when arrived there, our all
knowing, unerring Physician, always mercifully producing good
from evil, and setting to rights the mad, destructive freaks of
mortals, will, it is to be hoped, in the present forlorn distresses
interfere, and give such a favorable turn to the crisis, as to
make this bedlam-commitment end in the cure of all its miser-
able captives. More and more happy, I bless God, do I every
day feel myself to find that my passage over this life's Atlantic
is almost gained, having been in soundings for some time, not
far from my wished-for port, waiting only for a favorable breeze
from our kind Savior to waft me to that pleasing and expected
land for which I cheerfully and humbly hope.
Since our country will have it so, that Mr. Jefferson may
discharge his four years' duty with as much faithfulness and
steadiness as you have done, and as much to the public benefit;
that in so doing he may have the constitutional assistance and
countenance of every citizen of the Union ; and that his public
actions may be judged of with candor and generosity, without
any captious hole-picking; and above all, that every tendency
to our reharmonizing and keeping so may be cordially embraced
and zealously forwarded by all ranks, and happily effected, is
the constant, sincere, and heartfelt prayer of him who is with
great respect and affection, dear Sir,
Your most obedient, &c.,
Christopher Gadsden.
TO SAMUEL DEXTER.
Quincy, 23 March, 1801.
I left "Washington on the 4th, and arrived at Quincy on the
18th, having trotted the bogs five hundred miles. I found about
a hundred loads of sea-weed in my barnyard, and, recollecting
Horace's
" Et genus et virtus, nisi cum re, vilior alga est,"
I thought I had made a good exchange, if Ulysses is an ortho-
dox authority in this case, which I do not believe, of honors and
CORRESPONDENCE. 581
virtues for manure. I have more reason than Ulysses to inquire
of Tiresias, or some other prophet,
" quibus amissas reparare queam res
Artibus alque modis."
I shall not, however, most certainly take the measures recom-
mended by Tiresias. The fifth and sixth satires of the second
book of Horace have much good matter applicable to me. If
you will read them, it will save me the trouble of writing, and
you of reading much which I might commit to paper concerning
myself
All is still as night in this region. My respects to the Presi-
dent, and compliments to Messrs. Madison, Lincoln, Dearborn,
and love to Mr. Stoddert. Pray Mrs. Dexter to accept the kind
regards of my family, and you will do me a favor by letting me
hear of your welfare.
TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.
Quincy, 24 March, 1801.
I have received your favor of IMarch 8th, with the letter in-
closed, for which I thank you.^ Inclosed is a letter to one of
your domestics, Joseph Dougherty.
Had you read the papers inclosed, they might have given
you a moment of melancholy, or, at least, of sympathy with a
inourning father. They related wholly to the funeral of a son,
who was once the delight of my eyes, and a darling of my heart,
cut off in the flower of his days, amidst very flattering prospects,
by causes which have been the greatest grief of my heart, and
the deepest affliction of my life. It is not possible that any
thing of the kind should happen to you, and I sincerely wish
you may never experience any thing in any degree resembling it.
This part of the Union is in a state of perfect tranquillity,
and I see nothing to obscure your prospect of a quiet and pros-
perous administration, which I heartily wash you.
With great respect, &c.
1 " Th. Jefferson presents his respects to Mr. Adams, and incloses hhn a letter
which came to his hands last night. On reading what is written within the
cover, he concluded it to be a private letter, and without opening a single paper
within it, he folded it up, and now has the honor to inclose it to Mr. Adams,
with the homage of his high consideration and respect." Washington, 8 March,
1801.
49*
582 CORRESPONDENCE.
TO BENJAMIN STODDERT.
Quincy, 31 March, 1801.
On the evening of the 18th, a few minutes after my arrival
at this place, commenced a violent equinoctial gale of wind,
accompanied with a flood of rain, from the north-east, which
has continued, with very short intervals, to this day, and con-
fined me to my house. This is so old fashioned a storm, that
I begin to hope that nature is returning to her old good-nature
and good-humor, and is substituting fermentations in the ele-
ments for revolutions in the moral, intellectual, and political
world. I can give you no information of the politics of this
State, having had little opportunity to converse with any of
the knowing ones.
We know nothing with any certainty of the acts of our Exe-_
cutive at Washington; who are to go out, and who to come
in; whether the Virginia system is to be a copy of that of Penn-
sylvania, or whether it will be original. Appointments of Mr.
Dallas and Mr. Dawson are announced, and as these characters
are not held in great veneration here, they are not much ad-
mired. /We federalists are much in tlie situation of the party
of Bolingbroke and Harley, after the treaty of Utrecht, com-
pletely and totally routed and defeated. We are not yet
attainted by act of Congress, and, I hope, shall not fly out into
rebellion. No party, that ever existed, knew itself so little, or
so vainly overrated its own influence and popularity, as ours.
None ever understood so ill the causes of its own power, or so
wantonly destroyed them. If we had been blessed with com-
mon sense, we should not have been overthrown by Philip
Freneau, Duane, Callender, Cooper, and Lyon, or their great
patron and protector. A group of foreign liars, encouraged by
a few ambitious native gentlemen, have discomfited the educa-
tion, the talents, the virtues, and the property of the country.
The reason is, we have no Americans in America. The fede-
ralists have been no more Americans than the antles.
Your time is too precious to be wasted in idle correspond-
ences ; but, if you have a moment to spare, you will oblige me
by giving me news of your welfare. My family present their
high regards to yours. I have not seen any of the attacks upon
CORRESPONDENCE. 583
you, nor any of your defence. Indeed, I have no great anxiety
or curiosity to know the productions of malevolence. I am,
and ever shall be, I believe, world without end, your friend, &c.
TO THE MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE.
Qulncy, 6 April, 1801.
I have received from Mr. Pichon your favor of the 10th of
January, and, while I feel my obligations to you for your kind
remembrance of me, I very heartily rejoice with you in your
return to your native country. The new superintendent of the
commercial relations between France and the United States,
will, I presume, be very well received here, and the better by
most men for the part he acted in Holland, in promoting the
late negotiation.
"I live" also "with my family in a rural, solitary place of
retirement," after an uninterrupted toil of six-and-twenty years
in the service of the public. Like you, also, " I preserve the love,
the doctrines, and the independence of true liberty." It is a
lamentable truth, that mankind has always been ill treated by
government, and a most unfortunate circumstance, which ren-
ders the evil totally desperate, is, that they are never so ill used
as when they take the government into their own hands. The
doctrines of sans-culotteism are productive of more plagues than
those of Sir Robert Filmer, while they last.
I am glad you are on good terms with your principal deliverer
from Olmutz, who did honor to his own head and heart by his
wise and generous conduct upon that occasion. How extra-
ordinary that character! Is it not unique? As it has been my
fortune to conduct a negotiation with him, I may, without
offence, wish him a greater glory than ever yet fell to the lot of
any conqueror before him, that of giving peace to Europe, and
liberty and good government to France.
Your country by adoption has grown and prospered since
you saw it. You would scarcely know it, if you should make
it a visit. It would be a great pleasure to the farmer of Stony
field to take you by the hand in his little chaumiere.
584 CORRESPONDENCE.
^Mi-tf. Adams, who is all the family I have, joins me in respect-
ful attachment to you and your lady and family. With great
regard, &c.
TO CHRISTOPHER GADSDEN.
Quincy, 16 April, 1801.
I have received your favor of the 11th of March, and, with a
pleasure far exceeding all my powers of expression, perceive
that your friendly sentiments for me are as kind and indulgent
as they were six-and-twenty years ago. I read with the same
satisfaction your publication last fall, and with a tenderness
which was almost too much for my sensibility. While Wythe
and Pendleton, and McKean, and Clinton, and Gates, and Os-
good, and many others I could name, were arrayed in political
j hostility against their old friend, Gadsden was almost the only
I stanch old companion, who was faithful found. What is the
reason that so many of our "old standbys" are infected with
Jacobinism ? The principles of this infernal tribe were surely
no part of our ancient political creed.
"Foreign meddlers," as you properly denominate them, have
a strange, a mysterious influence in this country. Is there no
pride in American bosoms ? Can their hearts endure that Cal-
lender, Duane, Cooper, and Lyon, should be the most influential
men in the country, all foreigners and all degraded characters ?
It is astonishing to me that the " tribes of law-followers " should
adopt principles subversive of all law, should unite with the
ignorant and illiberal against men of understanding and pro-
perty. The plan of our worthy friend, John Rutledge, relative
to the admission of strangers to the privileges of citizens, as
you explain it, was certainly prudent. Americans will find
that their own experience will coincide with the experience of
I all other nations, and foreigners must be received with caution,
or they will destroy all confidence in government.
I have been well informed of the frank, candid, and honorable
conduct of General Pinckney at your State election, which was
conformable to the whole tenor of his conduct through life, as
far as it has come to my knowledge.
CORRESPONDENCE. 585
The only consolation I shall want will be that of employ-
ment. Ennui, when it rains on a man in large drops, is worse
than one of our north-east storms ; but the labors of agriculture
and amusement of letters will shelter'me. My greatest grief is
that I cannot return to the bar. There I should forget in a
moment that I was ever a member of Congress, a foreign mi-
nister, or President of the United States. But I cannot speak.
I concur with you so fully in sentiment, that I very much
doubt whether in any period of the world so much ever happened
in a dozen years to mortify the vanity of human nature, and to
render existence odious to man. I know of no philosophy or
religion but yours, which can reconcile man to life. I should
envy you the felicity of your prospect, if I had not the same in
-substance in my own view. I am approaching sixty-five, and
what are ten or eleven years after that age ? I shall arrive
soon after you, and it is my sincere, devout wish, that we may
be better acquainted, and never separated, in our new country.
To Mr. Jefferson's administration I wish prosperity and feli-
city ; but the commencement of it is too strongly infected with
the spirit of party, to give much encouragement to men who are J
merely national.
Accept, my dear Sir, a repetition of assurances of a warm
affection, a sincere friendship, and a high esteem.
TO SAMUEL A. OTIS.
Quincy, 26 January, 1802.
I received your favor of December 16th, and presented the
inclosed letter from Mrs. Otis to Mrs. Adams. I congi'atulate
you on your continuance in office.^ It would not have raised
the reputation of any set of men to have made unnecessary
changes in such kinds of offices. Even in England, where party
and self have at least as much energy as they have here, re-
movals are uncommon in the army, navy, revenue, as well as in
the subordinate offices in the great departments. The Marquis
I Mr. Otis was Clerk of the Senate of the United States.
586 CORRESPONDENCE.
of Carmarthen introduced to me Mr. Fraser, an under secre-
tary of State, and afterwards said to me that Mr. Fraser was
the cleverest man in England ; that in all the changes of admi-
nistration he had remained in office since the duke of Newcastle's
time, above thirty years. I do not mean by this to say that
you are the cleverest man in the United States, but I will say
you are so clever that it would have been ungenerous, indis-
creet, in the present majority to have removed you.
TO THOMAS TRUXTUN.
Qulncy, 30 November, 1802.
I have many apologies to make for omitting so long to
acknowledge the receipt of your obliging favor of the 10th of
July. The copy you have done me the honor to present to me
of the medal voted by Congress, and executed according to my
directions to the Secretary of the Navy, I accept with great
pleasure, not only from my personal regard to the giver, but
because I esteem every laurel conferred upon you, for the glo-
rious action of the 1st of March, 1800, as an honor done to our
beloved country. From both of these motives I have been
highly gratified with the honor the gentlemen of Lloyd's Coffee
House have done themselves in the handsome acknowledgment
they have made of their obligations to you. I regret that the
artist had not completed the medal in season, that I might have
had the satisfaction of presenting it to an officer who has so
greatly deserved it ; and I lament still more that I had not the
power of promoting merit to its just rank in the navy, that of
an admiral.
The counsel which Themistocles gave to Athens, Pompey to
Rome, Cromwell to England, De Witt to Holland, and Colbert
to France, I have always given and shall continue to give to
my countrymen, that as the great questions of commerce and
power between nations and empires must be decided by a mili-
tary marine, and war and peace are determined at sea, all
reasonable encouragement should be given to the navy. The
trident of Neptune is the sceptre of the world.
CORRESPONDENCE. 587
TO JOSHUA THOMAS, JAMES THACHER, AND WILLIAM JACKSON.
Quincy, 20 December, 1802.
Gentlemen, — Nothing could afford me more pleasure than
to visit my friends in Plymouth (where I formerly so much
delighted to reside) on the 22d instant, according to your polite
and obliging invitation, but various circumstances will oblige
me to deny myself that gratification.
I feel a well-gi'ounded conviction, that the best principles of
our great and glorious ancestors are inherited by a large portion
of the American people. And if the talents, the policy, the
address, the power, the bigotry, and tyranny of Archbishop Laud,
and the court of Charles the First, were not able to destroy or
discredit them in 1630 or 1635, there is little cause of apprehen-
sion for them from the feeble efforts of the frivolous libertines,
who are combining, conspiring, and intriguing against them in
1802. These principles are a file that has broken the teeth of
many a viper. Or, to borrow a figure from one of the reformers,
they are an anvil which has broken to pieces or worn out a
long succession of hammers of firmer metal and more formidable
weight than any that have been or can be wielded by the pre-
sent effeminate and profligate race of their enemies.
While I concur in your opinion, that our free Constitution
and elective government can exist no longer than these prin-
ciples, and must be destroyed in their fall, and although I have
sometimes been staggered in my faith for a moment by the
license of calumny, I still entertain a pleasing hope that this
nation will long enjoy a continuance of felicity and prosperity
under their pure principles and representative governments.
Your benevolent wishes for my happiness I with great sin-
cerity reciprocate to you, to the town of Plymouth, to the Old
Colony, and to all who rejoice in the day and event you so
wisely celebrate.
588 CORRESPONDENCE.
TO F. A. VANDERKEMP.
Quincy, 3 March, 1804.
Last night I received your favor of the 15th of February. At
the two last meetings of our academy I made inquiry concern-
ing your manuscript, and found that the committee had referred
it to a sub-committee, who were not then present, and had
not reported. I will endeavor to get this matter settled at the
next meeting in May. BufTon, I presume, from all I have
heard or read of him, believed in nothing but matter, which he
thought was eternal and self-existent. The universe had been
from eternity as it is now, with all its good and evil, intelligence
and accident, beauty and deformity, harmony and dissonance,
order and confusion, virtue and vice, wisdom and folly, equity
and inequity, truth and lies ; that planets and suns, systems
and systems of systems, are born and die, like animals and
vegetables, and that this process will go on to all eternity.
Something like this was the creed of the King of Prussia and
D'Alembert, Diderot, and De la Lande. All this, I think, is
neither more nor less than the creed of Epicurus set to music
by Lucretius.
•' The movements of nature" mean the movements of matter;
but can matter move itself? " The renovating powder of mat-
ter,"— what does this mean? Can matter, if annihilated, re-
create itself? Matter, if at rest, can it set itself in motion ?
A German ambassador once told me, " he could not bear St.
Paul, he was so severe against fornication." On the same
principle these philosophers cannot bear a God, because he is
just.
You could not apply more unfortunately than to me for any
knowledge of natural history. A little law, a little ethics, and
a little history constitute all the circle of my knowledge, and I
am too old to acquire any thing new^
"~ Sensible as I am of the honor, and grateful to you as I am
for the offer, I beg leave to decline the dedication. I wish to
pass off as little talked of and thought of as possible.
I can hear nothing of Ingraham's journal. It might, for what
I know, have gone to the bottom of the sea with him in the
Insurgente.
CORRESPONDENCE. 589
In the wisdom, power, and goodness of our maker is all the
security we have against roasting in volcanoes and writhing
with the tortures of gout, stone, cholic, and cancers; sinking
under the burdens of dray-horses and hackney coach-horses to
all eternity. Nature produces all these evils, and if she does it
by chance, she may assign them all to us, whether we behave
well or ill, and the poor hag will not know what she does.
Almost forty years ago, that is in 1765, I wrote a few
thoughts in Edes and Gill's Gazette. Mr. Hollis of London
printed them in a pamphlet, and imputed them to Mr. Gridley.
He gave them the title of a Dissertation on the Canon and
Feudal Law. A lamentable bagatelle it is. I have no copy of
it, and know not where to get one.
I know nothing of Stuart's success. I sat to him at the
request of the Massachusetts legislature, but have never seen
any thing of the picture but the first sketch.
There are no more than two volumes of the Memoirs of
the Academy. Count Sarsfield solicited me very earnestly in
London to let him import some French mirrors under my privi-
lege. I told him I considered my privilege as sacred. He then
answered: "7/ ne vaut pas un sou d'etre voire ami" Do not let
Hamilton know this. If you do, he will record it in his next
pamphlet as an instance of my vanity. Your letters always
give pleasure to your old friend.
TO F. A. VANDERKEMP.
Quincy, 5 February, 1805.
This day I received your favor of the 15th of last month. You
and I are in the same predicament. You are buried and for-
gotten, as you say, in the western wilderness, and I am buried
and forgotten at Mount Wollaston ; but I believe you are hap-
pier than you were when bustling in Holland, and I am very
sure I have been happier for these four years past, than I ever
was in any four of forty years before that term began. From
the year 1760 to the year 1800 I was svv^allowed up in cares,
anxieties, and exertions for the public. At the close of the 18th
VOL. IX. 50
590 CORRESPONDENCE.
century, I was dismissed, to the joy of both parties, to a retire-
ment in which I was never more to see any thing but my plough
between me and the grave. I submitted without murmuring,
complaint, or dismay, and have enjoyed life and health with
gratitude, calmness, and comfort. I cannot always be free from
apprehensions for the public ; but as all responsibility is cheer-
fully taken away from me by both parties, I have no fears of
future remorse or reflection on myself for any errors or miscar-
riages of my own.
Such is the nature of the people, and such the construction
of our government, that about once in a dozen years there will
be an entire change in the administration. I lived twelve years
as President and Vice-President; Jefferson may possibly last
sixteen ; but New York and Pennsylvania cannot remain lon-
ger than that period in their present unnatural attachment to
the southern States, nor will the natural inconstancy of the
people allow them to persevere longer in their present career.
Our government will be a game of leap-frog, of factions leaping
over one another's backs about once in twelve years, according
to my computation.
I am fearful of nothing more than of what you prognosticate,
that the people at next change will " fearfully avenge themselves
and their wrongs on some of the objects of their present idol-
atry." The federalists, however, will be too wise to be vin-
dictive.
Franklin's parable against persecution was borrowed from
Bishop Taylor, who quotes it from some of the cabalistical
writings, as I understood. It is certain that Franklin was not
the inventor of it.
The dart of Abaris might be the northern light, for what I
know, but it will be difficult to prove it. Who, pray, is Sar-
bienus ? I never heard of him, and cannot find his name in the
Dictionnaire Historiqiie, nor Moreri, nor any other writer. You
must erase every word of panegyric upon Buffon and Jefferson,
for Buffon was an atheist and Jefferson is President of the
United States.
CORRESPONDENCE. 591
TO BENJAMIN RUSH.
Quincy, 1 May, 1807.
If credit can be given to Judge Innes's deposition and Sebas-
tian's conviction, it is certain that Spain has tampered in the
United States, and if she tampered once before with others, she
might a second time with Burr. If I was convinced of his
guilt of treason or treasonable intentions, I should infer that he
was eraployed'by Spain.
You ask me, if I do not sometimes imprecate evils on the
day on which I became a politician. I have endeavored to
recollect that day. It is a remote one. A mighty impression
was made upon my little head at the time of the expedition
against Cape Breton under General Pepperell in 1745, and on
the approach of the Duke d'Enville's armament against Boston.
But I have only my memory to testify so early. An odd acci-
dent has within a month brought to light the inclosed letter,
which has lain fifty-one years and a half in darkness and
silence, in dust and oblivion. ^ Pray tell me your reflections on
the sight of this droll phenomenon. I fancy they will be, first,
wiiat would our tories and quakers and proprietors have said
of this letter, had it been published in 1774, 5, or 6 ? But I
will not guess at any more of your observations. You shall
make them yourself and relate them to me. But I will make
my own remarks first, and submit them to you.
1. Paine, in " Common Sense," says, that nobody in America
ever thought, till he revealed to them the mighty truth, that
America would ever be independent. I remember not the
words, but this is the sense as I remember it. This I have
ahvays, at all times and in all places, contradicted, and have
affirmed that the idea of American independence, sooner or
later, and of the necessity of it some time or other, was always
familiar to gentlemen of reflection in all parts of America, and
I spoke of my own knowledge in this province.
2. I very distinctly remember, that in the war of 1755, a
union of the colonies, to defend themselves against the en-
1 The letter to Nathan Webb, written in 1755, and inserted in the first chap-
ter of the memoir in the first volume of this work.
592 CORRESPONDENCE.
croachments of the French, was the general wish of the gentle-
men with whom I conversed, and it was the opinion of some
that we could defend om-selves, and even conquer Canada, bet-
ter without England than with her, if she would but allow us
to vmite and exert our strength, courage, and skill, diffident as
we were of the last.
3. It was the fear of this union of the colonies, which was
indeed commenced in a Congress at Albany, which induced the
English to take the war into their own hands.
4. The war was so ill conducted by Shirley, Lord Loudon,
Braddock, and all other British commanders, till "Wolfe and
Amherst came forward, that the utmost anxiety prevailed, and
a thousand panics were spread lest the French should overrun
us all. All this time I was not alone in wishing that we were
unshackled by Britain, and left to defend ourselves.
5. The treatment of the provincial officers and soldiers by the
British officers during that war made the blood boil in my veins.
6. Notwithstanding all this, I had no desire of independence
as long as Britain would do us justice. I knew it must be an
obstinate struggle, and saw no advantage in it as long as Bri-
tain should leave our liberties inviolate.
7. Jefferson has acquired such glory by his declaration of
independence in 1776, that I think I may boast of my declara-
tion of independence in 1755, twenty-one years older than his.
8. Our governor elect, in his biographical sketch of Samuel
Adams, ascribes to him the honor of the first idea and project
of independence. In 1755, when my letter to Dr. Webb was
written, I had never seen the face of Samuel Adams.
9. The English, the Scotch, the tories, and hyperfederalists
will rebellow their execrations against me as a rebel from my
infancy, and a plotter of independence more than half a hundred
ago.
10. The present ruling party in the United States will repeat,
renew, and redouble their curses and sarcasms against me for
having meditated the ruin of this country from a boy, from a
mere chicken in the eggshell, by building a navy under pretence
of protecting our commerce and seaports, but in reality only as
a hobby-horse for myself to ride and to increase my patronage.
For there can be no doubt but the boy, though not yet twenty
years old, and though pinched and starved in a stingy country
years ^^
CORRESPONDENCE. 593
school, fully expected to be King of North America, and to
marry his daughter to the Prince of Wales, and his son, John
Quincy, to the princess royal of England.
11. There can be no doubt but this letter, puerile and child-
ish as it is, will make a distinguished figure in the memoirs of
my life. A grave and important question arises on a point of
chronology, whether it should be inserted in the month of Oc-
tober, 1755, the time of its birth, or in the month of April, 1807,
the time of its resurrection. As you have advised me to write
my own life^jrou must resolve this question for me, for it is too
perplexed for my judgment to determine.
12. You may depend upon its authenticity, for I have copied
it from the original, to every word and almost every letter of
which I can attest, and so might any one else, who should com-
pare it with this, from the similarity of hand and composition.
13. Viue la bagatelle I
Now, Sir, to be serious, I do not curse the day when I en-
gaged in public affairs. I do not say when I became a politician,
for that I never was. I cannot repent of any thing I ever did
conscientiously and from a sense of duty. I never engaged in
public affairs for my own interest, pleasure, envy, jealousy,
avarice, or ambition, or even the desire of fame. If any of these
had been my motive, my conduct would have been very differ-
ent. In every considerable transaction of my public life, I have
invariably acted according to my best judgment, and I can look
up to God for the sincerity of my intentions. How, then, is it
possible I can repent? Notwithstanding this, I have an immense
load of errors, weaknesses, follies, and sins to mourn over and
repent of, and these are the only afflictions of my present life.
But, notwithstanding all, St. Paul and Dr. Barrow have taught
me to rejoice evermore, and be content. This phrase, "rejoice
evermore," shall never be out of my heart, memory, or mouth
again, as long as I live, if I can help it. This is my perfect-
ibility of man.
Your " palace of ice " is a most admirable image. I agree that
you and I have been employed in building a palace of ice.
However, if we did not believe it to be marble, or silver, or
gold, or ivory, or alabaster, or stone, or brick, Ave both thought
it good, sound white oak, which would shelter its inhabitants
from the inclemency of the weather, and last a long time. But
594 CORRESPONDENCE.
the heat of the climate in summer has proved it to have been
ice. It is all melted to water.
P. S. I forgot a principal point I had in view when I sat
down ; that is, to congratulate you that the Queen of Etruria has
fallen in love with you. Tell Mrs. Rush that I congratulate
her that the Queen of Sheba is not likely to visit Solomon at
Philadelphia.
TO WILLIAM HEATH.
Quincy, 11 May, 1807,
I read in the Chronicle, some time ago, two speculations with
the signature of A Military Countryman, and I read them with
great pleasure for two very substantial reasons, one of which is
that I cordially approved and coincided with every sentiment
and every expression in them. The other was, that I knew at
once that General Heath was the writer of them. How did
you know that, you will ask. I answer, by the style, by the
signature, and by the motto. I need not enlarge on the two
former, but of the latter I can give you a piece of history. Not
much less than thirty years ago, you wrote me a letter in which
you quoted the King of Prussia's maxim, " that the entire pros-
perity of every State rests on the discipline of its armies." I
had read this in the King of Prussia's writings before, and was
now so struck with it, and thought it so apposite to the exigen-
cies of the times, that I made Edes and Gill insert it as a motto
to their Boston Gazette, where it shone to the end of the war.
You never knew till now from whence it came, and perhaps
least of all suspected that it came from yourself. The maxim
is certainly true in a sense; but what is that sense? The King
of Prussia was a soldier, a general, and an absolute monarch,
whose existence depended on the discipline of his armies, and
therefore might adopt this maxim in a sense too absolute. The
Pope and his cardinals would probably say that " the entire
prosperity of every State depends upon the discipline of the
Catholic church," The archbishops and bishops of England
would say, " the entire prosperity of every State depends on
subscription to the thirty-nine articles," The Presbyterians in
CORRESPONDENCE. 595
America might say, the entire prosperity of the State depends
on observance of the result of synods, assemblies of the clergy,
&c. Christians in general might say, that the entire prosperity
of the State depends on the religious observation of the sab-
bath. Men of the most enlarged minds and extensive views
may say that the entire prosperity of a S'tate depends on a
strict attention in making matrimony be honored and respected.
The abuses of marriage, these men will say, are the original
source of all corruptions of morals; and without pure morals
there can be no prosperity. The American yeomanry say at
this day, the entire prosperity of the State depends on agricul-
ture. The American merchants say that it depends on com-
merce. The lawyers say that it depends on a government of
laws and not of men. Philosophers of the deepest reflection
will say that wealth and power are not prosperity, and that
pure prosperity depends on pure morals. The King of Prussia's
maxim is a remnant of the old system, that that order of men
who have for their object the defence of the State, ought to
enjoy its principal honors, dignities, and emoluments. But, my
friend, let me observe to you that on this principle have been
founded systems, which will not succeed in this age, either in
America or Europe. Hereditary monarchies, hereditary nobili-
ties, originate from this source. Of all professions in society,
the military have the most to fear from luxury and effeminacy.
Military men, therefore, have been forbidden commerce and all
other means of acquiring wealth. Glory has been the only
object permitted them. But no men were found who would
fight for mere personal glory ; and therefore they have been per-
mitted to glory in their birth, and in transmitting their honors
to posterity.
But commerce has produced an entire revolution in the sen-
timents of mankind. Honor and glory are too meagre a diet
to feed officers or soldiers in this age. Money they will have, or
you will have neither discipline nor army. Even in England,
and much more in France, the reward of nobility will not do to
excite exertion without money, in the shape of prizes, plunder,
or pillage.
These, however, are but airy amusements of speculation ; my
principal design was to express to you my thanks for communi-
cating your sentiments to the public, and to assure you that 1
596 CORRESPONDENCE.
think with you. Some fortifications to our seaports I think
indispensable ; some soldiers, especially artillery men, to garri-
son the fortresses. Armies were always my aversion, however
I may have been belied. Some frigates to defend our sea-coasts
from insult, and protect our commerce in the West Indies from
pirates. Seventy-fours never had my approbation. My judg-
ment was always in favor of frigates, and of them but a mode-
rate number. A general attention to the militia and its instruc-
tion and discipline. In these sentiments, if I understand you,
we are agreed ; and I think it is time for the antediluvian pa-
triarchs to interchange sentiments with each other. We have
passed the river and the Red Sea, and escaped from the house
of bondage, but we shall never see the promised land. We are
still wandering in the wilderness, however secure we may think
ourselves.
TO BENJAMIN RUSH.
Quincy, 21 May, 1807.
My not preserving a copy of my letter to Doctor Nathan
Webb (for he was a physician) is no wonder, for I never kept a
copy of any letter till I became a member of Congress, in 1774.
The observation of your son Richard is very shrewd, and, unfor-
tunately for me, very just. There are the same marks of haste,
and heedless inattention to style, which have characterized all
my writings to this day.
I have always laughed at the affectation of representing
American independence as a novel idea, as a modern discovery,
as a late invention. The idea of it as a possible thing, as a
probable event, nay, as a necessary and unavoidable measure,
in case Great Britain should assume an unconstitutional author-
ity over us, has been familiar to Americans from the first settle-
ment of the country, and was as well understood by Governor
Winthrop in 1675,i a,s by Governor Samuel Adams, when he
told you that independence had been the first wish of his heart
for seven years. I suppose he dated from 1768, when the board
of commissioners arrived and landed in Boston under the pro-
tection of nine ships of war and four thousand regular troops.
^ So in the copy. It 'may refer to the Connecticut Governor. But it is pro-
bably an error in the third figure.
CORRESPONDENCE. 597
A couplet has been repeated with rapture, as loug as I can
remember, which was imputed to Dean Berkeley. The first
line I have forgot, but the last was,
" And empire rises wliere the suu descends ; 1
This was public many years before my letter of 1755 to Doctor
Webb. In 1760, Colonel Josiah Quincy, the grandfather of
Josiah Quhicy, now a member of Congress from Boston, read
to me a letter he had then just received from a Mr. Turner, I
believe one of the first mercantile houses in London, congratu-
lating him on the surrender of Montreal to General Amherst,
and the final conquest of Canada, " as a great event to America,
not only by insuring her tranquillity and repose, but as facilitat-
ing and advancing your (Colonel Quincy's) country's rise to
independence and empire." Within the course of the year
before the meeting of Congress, in 1774, on a journey to some
of our circuit courts in Massachusetts, I stopped one night at a
tavern in Shrewsbury, about forty miles from Boston, and as I
was cold and wet, I sat down at a good fire in the bar-room to
dry my great coat and saddle-bags till a fire could be made in
my chamber. There presently came in, one after another, half a
dozen, or half a score, substantial yeomen of the neighborhood,
who, sitting down to the fire after lighting their pipes, began a
lively conversation upon politics. As I believed I was unknown
to all of them, I sat in total silence to hear them. One said,
" The people of Boston are distracted ! " Another answered, " No
wonder the people of Boston are distracted. Oppression will
make wise men mad." A third said, " What would you say,
if a fellow should come to your house and tell you he was come
to take a list of your cattle, that parliament might tax you for
them at so much a head? and how should you feel, if he was
to go and break open your barn, to take down your oxen, cows,
horses, and sheep ? " " What should I say ? " replied the first ;
" I would knock him in the head." " Well," said a fourth,
" if parliament can take away Mr. Hancock's wharf and Mr.
Rowe's wharf, they can take away your barn and my house."
After much more reasoning in this style, a fifth, who had as yet
been silent, broke out, " Well, it is high time for us to rebel; we
1 The lines of Berkeley are now familiarly known to all American readers,
but they do not contain the words quoted. See the next letter.
598 CORRESPONDENCE.
must, rebel some time or other, and we had better rebel now
than at any time to come. If we put it ofT for ten or twenty
years, and let them go on as they have begun, they will get a
strong party among us, and plague us a great deal more than
they can now. As yet, they have but a small party on their
side." I was disgusted with his word rebel, because I was
determined never to rebel, as much as I was to resist rebellion
against the fundamental privileges of the Constitution, when-
ever British generals or governors should begin it. I mention
this anecdote to show that the idea of independence was fami-
liar, even among the common people, much earlier than some
persons pretend. I have heard some gentlemen of education
say, that the first idea of independence was suggested to them
by the pamphlet " Common Sense;" and others, that they were
first converted by it to that doctrine; but these were men of
very little conversation with the world, and men of very narrow
views and very little reflection.
Your enemies are only your would-be rivals ; they can never
hurt you. Envy is a foul fiend that is only to be defied. You
read Sully. His memoirs are a pretty specimen. Every honest,
virtuous, and able man that ever existed, from Abel down to
Doctor Rush, has had this enemy to combat through life.
" Envy does merit as its shade pursue." You need not fear the
charge of vanity. Vanity is really what the French call it,
amour propre, self-love, and it is a universal passion. All men
have it in an equal degree. Honest men do not always dis-
guise it. Knaves often do, if not always. When you see or
hear a man pique himself upon his modesty, you may depend
upon it, he is as vain a fellow as lives, and very probably a
great villain. I would advise you to communicate freely all
the compliments you have had or may have from Europe. Defy
the foul fiend. Do not infer from this that I think there is
no such thing as modesty or decency. On the contrary, it is
the duty of every man to respect the self-love of every other
man, and not to disgust him by any ostentatious display of his
own. But in your case, surrounded as you are with jealous
competitors, always intriguing to depress you, it is your right
and your duty to mortify their invidious impertinence by a free
communication of all your trophies to your friends without any
injunctions of secrecy.
CORRESPONDENCE. 599
I have not seen the pamphlet, entitled " The dangers of the
country," but my mind is deeply impressed with the dangers of
our country, and all other countries, of France as well as Eng-
land. Of all countries, there is none more to be pitied than
France. England, in my opinion, is in a still less dangerous
situation than her rival.
The ominous dissolution of morality, both in theory and prac-
tice, throughout the civilized world, threatens dangers and cala-
mities of a novel species, beyond all calculation, because there is
no precedent or example in history which can show us the con-
sequences of it. Perhaps you may say. Tyre and Sidon, Sodom
and Gomorrah are examples in point. But we have no relation
of their rise, progi*ess, and decline. You may say the old world,
when it repented God that he had made man, when it grieved
him in his heart that he had made so vile a creature, is a case
in point. I know not what to say in answer to this, only that
the same authority we have for the fact, assures us that the
world shall never be again drowned.
TO BENJAMIN RUSH.
Quincy, 23 May, 1807.
I received, at an exhibition of music in our polite village of
Mount Wollaston, on Thursday, your letter relative to Mr.
Loud, and sent it immediately to Dr. Tufts by his lady, that the
young gentleman's friends might be informed of his situation.
I lament the untimely decline of a youth, although I never saw
him, who has been represented to me as one who injured his
health by too intense an application to study. I never heard
his name but once, when my brother Cranch mentioned him to
me before he embarked on his voyage.
And now I have mentioned my brother Cranch, a gentleman
of four-score, whose memory is better than mine, I will relate
to you a conversation with him last evening. I asked him if
he recollected the first line of a couplet whose second line was,
"and empire rises where the sun descends." He paused a
moment and said, —
" The eastern nations sink, their glory ends,
And empire rises where the sun descends."
600 CORRESPONDENCE.
I asked him, if Dean Berkeley was the author of them. He
answered no. The tradition was, as he had heard it for sixty
years, that these lines were inscribed, or rather drilled, into a
rock on the shore of Monument Bay in ovir old colony of Ply-
mouth, and were supposed to have been written and engraved
there by some of the first emigrants from Leyden, who landed
at Plymouth. However this may be, I may add my testimony
to Mr. Cranch's, that I have heard these verses for more than
sixty years. I conjecture that Berkeley became connected with
them, in my head, by some report that the bishop had copied
them into some publication. There is nothing, in my little
reading, more ancient in my memory than the observation that
arts, sciences, and empire had travelled westward; and in con-
versation it was always added since I was a child, that their
next leap would be over the Atlantic into America.
The claim of the 1776 men to the honor of first conceiving
the idea of American independence, or of first inventing the pro-
ject of it, is as ridiculous as that of Dr. Priestley to the discovery
of the perfectibility of man. I hereby disclaim all pretensions
to it, because it was much more ancient than my nativity.
TO BENJAMIN RUSH.
Quincy, 3 September, 1808.
I will not stand upon ceremonies with you, and wait for the
return of a visit, or an answer to my last letter.
Whatever proportion of loyalty to an established dynasty of
kings, or whatever taint of Catholic superstition there may be
in the present sensations of the Spanish people, or however
their conduct may have been excited by British or Austrian
gold, I revere the mixture of pure patriotism that appears to be
in it and inseparable from it, and I wish to know the sentiments
of your Pennsylvania statesmen concerning it.
The contest between the houses of Austria and Bourbon in
the beginning of the last century for the succession to the throne
of Spain, is well known. Philip V. and Charles VI. were rivals,
as Ferdinand VH. and Joseph I. are now. Charles was sup-
CORRESPONDENCE. 601
ported by the Emperor, England and Holland, and Philip by
France and her allies. The Earls of Galway and Peterbo-
rough ran about Spain with armies at their heels, and pro-
claimed Charles at Madrid, and many other places, till Louis
XIV. and his grandson Philip were in despair. In this situa-
tion, Vauban, the great teacher of fortification, and one of the
profound statesmen as well as honest patriots of France, pro-
posed to his court to send Philip to reign in America, that the
commerce of Mexico and Peru might be secured to France.
The English seem to have adopted this project of Vauban, and
to aim at securing the commerce of South America to them-
selves. Have your Philadelphia politicians considered what
will be the consequence of this to the United States ? How
will it affect our Louisiana claims, our West India commerce ?
I am almost afraid to ask so bold and hazardous a question, as
whether it will not make France the natural ally of the United
States.
The inclination of the Spaniards was in favor of Philip, and
the fortitude of the Castilians turned the scale in his favor.
They made great efforts when they found hina in danger. It is
a very arduous enterprise to impose upon a nation a king in
spite of their teeth. The Austrians, the Dutch, the English,
and the Portuguese, were harassed in Spain, suffered for want
of provisions, and were consumed by degrees.
By some accounts, certain provinces in Spain have proclaimed
Prince Charles. This looks like a desire to revive the old con-
nection of Spain with the house of Austria, which might check
the house of Napoleon for the present, but would lay a founda-
tion for interminable future wars in Europe.
Is there room to hope that the French will meet with effect-
ual obstructions in Spain ? How will they procure provisions?
Not by sea. The English fleet is in the way. By land, from
France and Italy, will be almost impossible, and the Spaniards
have not onions and turnips enough for themselves. An army
of two or three hundred thousand Frenchmen will consume a
great many bushels. The Spaniards had better fight and die
in battle than perish with famine.
These occurrences in Spain open wide views to those who
have more information and sagacity than I have. They will
give trouble to Napoleon, employ a great part of his force, and
VOL. IX. 51
602 COERESPONDENCE.
be a powerful temptation to nations he has humbled, to avenge
their disgrace. The French have always been chased out of
Italy. Germany and the north of Europe must be alarmed at
having Spain and the Indies in the power of the Corsicans. In
short, I know not but the Spaniards may produce a Marlbo-
rough in England, and in Germany a Eugene, to give Napoleon
a fistula. What think you?
I have always called our Constitution a game at leap-frog.
New England is again converted to federalism. The federal
administration lasted twelve years. The republicans then leaped
over their heads and shoulders, and have ruled eight years. They
may possibly hold out four years more, and then probably the
federalists wull leap again. But neither party will ever be
strong, while they adhere to their austere, exclusive maxims.
Neither party will ever be able to pursue the true interest,
honor, and dignity of the nation. I lament the narrow, selfish
spirit of the leaders of both parties, but can do no good to
either. They are incorrigible. We must adopt the Dutch motto,
" Incertum quo fata feranlP
TO BENJAMIN RUSH.
Quincy, 27 September, 1808.
That Rosicrucian sylph, that fairy Queen Mab, or that other
familiar spirit, whatever it is, that inspires your nightly dreams,
I would not exchange, if I had it, for the demon of Socrates.
You have more wit, and humor, and sense in your sleep than
other people, I was about to say than you yourself, have when
awake. I know not whether I have ever read two finer allego-
ries than the two you have given me from your nocturnal
slumbers. I agree well enough with you in the moral of them
both.
I believe, with you, " a republican government," while the
people have the virtues, talents, and love of country necessary
to support it, "the best possible government to promote the
interest, dignity, and happiness of man." But you know that
commerce, luxury, and avarice have destroyed every republican
COKRESPONDENCE. 603
government. England and France have tried the experiment,
and neither of them could preserve it for twelve years. It
might be said with truth that they could not preserve it for a
moment, for the commonwealth of England, from 1640 to 1660,
was in reality a succession of monarchies under Pyra, Hamp-
den, Fairfax, and Cromwell, and the republic of France was a
similar monarchy under Mirabeau, Brissot, Danton, Robespierre,
and a succession of others like them, down to Napoleon, the
Emperor. The mercenary spirit of commerce has recently
destroyed the republics of Holland, Switzerland, and Venice.
Not one of these republics, however, dared at any time to trust
the people with any elections whatever, much less with the
election of first magistrates. In all those countries, the monster
venality would instantly have appeared, and swallowed at once
all security of liberty, property, fame, and life.
When public virtue is gone, when the national spirit is fled,
when a party is substituted for the nation and faction for a
party, when venality lurks and skulks in secret, and, much more,
when it impudently braves the public censure, whether it be
sent in the form of emissaries from foreign powers, or is em-
ployed by ambitious and intriguing domestic citizens, the repub-
lic is lost in essence, though it may still exist in form. The
form of a Senate is still preserved in Rome. The Prince Rez-
zonico was presented to me in London, under the title of
" Senatore di Roma." But what sort of a republic is Rome at
present ?
When commerce, and luxury, and dissipation had introduced
avarice among the Greeks, the artful policy and military disci-
pline of Philip and his son prevailed over all the toils, negotia-
tions, and eloquence of Demosthenes. The people who, in vir-
tuous times, or, if you will, in times of national pride, had set
the hosts of Persia at defiance, now sold themselves and bowed
their necks to the yoke of a petty prince of Macedonia. And
poor Demosthenes, abandoned, persecuted while he lived, was
pursued to an ignominious death, as the only reward of his
patriotism. Immortal glory has followed his eloquence, but
this he could not enjoy while he lived, and we know not that
he enjoys it since his death. I hope he has enjoyments superior
to this.
The same causes produced the same effects in Rome, and the
604 CORRESPONDENCE.
labors, eloquence, and patriotism of Cicero were to as little
purpose as those of Demosthenes, and were equally rewarded.
We mortals cannot work miracles; we struggle in vain
against the constitution and course of nature.
Americans, I fondly hope and candidly believe, are not yet
arrived at the age of Demosthenes or Cicero. If we can pre-
serve our Union entire, we may preserve our republic; but if
the union is broken, we become petty principalities, little better
than the feudatories, one of France and the other of England.
If I could lay an embargo, or pass a new importation law
against corruption and foreign influence, I would not make it a
temporary, but a perpetual law, and I would not repeal it,
though it should raise a clamor as loud as my gag-law, or your
grog-law, or Mr. Jefferson's embargo. The majorities in the
five States of New England, though small, are all on one side.
New York has fortified the same party with half a dozen mem-
bers, and anxious are the expectations from New Jersey, Penn-
sylvania, and Maryland. There is a body of the same party in
every other State. The Union, I fear, is in some danger. Nor
_is_thejdanger_of foreign war much diminished. An alliance
between England and Spain is a new aspect of planets towards
us. Surrounded by land, on the east, north, west, and south,
by the territories of two such powers, and blockaded by sea by
two such navies as the English and Spanish, without a friend
or ally by sea or land, we may have all our republican virtues
put to a trial.
I am weary of conjectures, but not in despair.
TO J. B. VARNUM.
Quincy, 26 December, 1808.
I receive very kindly your obliging letter of the 15th of this
month. Ever since my return from Europe, where I had resided
ten years, and could not be fully informed of the state of affairs
in my own country, I hqve been constantly anxious and alarmed
at the intemperance of party spirit and the unbounded license
of our presses. In the same view I could not but lament some
CORRESPONDENCE. 605
things which have lately passed in public bodies. To instance,
at Dedham and Topsfield, and last of all in the resolutions of
our Massachusetts legislature. Upon principle, I see no right
in our Senate and House to dictate, nor to advise, nor to request
our representatives in Congress. The right of the people to
instruct their representatives, is very dear to them, and will
never be disputed by me. But this is a very different thing
from an interference of a State legislature. Congress must be
"the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night" to conduct
this nation, and if their eyes are to be diverted by wandering
light, accidentally springing up in every direction, we shall
never get through the wilderness.
I have not been inattentive to the course of our public affairs,
and asree with Congress in their resolutions to resist the de-
crees, edicts, and orders of France and England ; but I think
the king's proclamation for the impressment of seamen on board
our merchant ships has not been distinctly enough reprobated.
It is the most groundless pretension of all. Retired as I am,
conversing with very few of any party, out of the secret of
affairs, collecting information only from public papers and pam-
phlets, many links in the great chain of deliberations, actions,
and events, may have escaped me. You will easily believe,
that an excessive diffidence in my own opinions has not been
the sin that has most easily beset me. I must nevertheless
confess to you that in all the intricate combinations of our
affairs, to which I have ever been a witness, I never found my-
self so much at a loss to form a judgment of what the nation
ought to doj^r^wliat part I ought to act. No man, then, I
hope, will have more confidence in the solidity of any thing I
may suggest than I have myself.
I revere the upright and enlightened general sense of our
American nation. It is nevertheless capable, like all other
nations, of general prejudices and national errors. Among
these, I know not whether there is any more remarkable than
that opinion so universal, that it is in our power to bring foreign
nations to our terms, by withholding our commerce. When the
executive and legislative authority of any nation, especially in
the old governments and great powers of Europe, have adopted
measures upon deliberation, and published them to the world,
they cannot recede without a deep humiliation and disgrace, in
51 *
606 CORRESPONDENCE.
the eyes of their own subjects, as well as all Europe. They
will therefore obstinately adhere to them, at the expense even
of great sacrifices, and in defiance of great dangers. In 1774,
Congress appeared alniost unanimously sanguine that a non-
importation and a non-consumption association would procure
an immediate repeal of acts of parliament and royal orders. I
went heartily along with the rest in all these measures, because
I knew that the sense of the nation, the public opinion in all
the colonies, required them, and I did not see that they could
do harm. But I had no confidence in their success in any thing
but uniting the American people. I expressed this opinion
freely to some of my friends, particularly to Mr. Henry of Vir-
ginia and to Major Hawley of Massachusetts. These two, and
these only, agreed with me in opinion, that we must fight, after
all. We found by experience that a war of eight years, in addi-
tion to all our resolutions, was necessary, and the aid of France,
Spain, and Holland, too, before our purposes could be accom-
plished. Do we presume that we can excite insurrection, rebel-
lion, and a revolution in England? Even a revolution would
be of no benefit to us. A republican government in England
would be more hostile to us than the monarchy is. The
resources of that country are so great, their merchants, capital-
ists, and principal manufacturers are so rich, that they can
employ their manufacturers and store their productions for a
long time, perhaps longer than we can or will bear to hoard
ours. In 1794, upon these principles and for these reasons, I
thought it my duty to decide, in Senate, against Mr. Madison's
resolutions, as they were called, and I have seen no reason to
alter my opinion since. L own J was sorry when the late non-
importation law passed. When a war with England was
seriously apprehended in 1794, I approved of an embargo, as a
temporary measure to preserve our seamen and property, buit
not with any expectation that it would influence England.; I
thought the embargo, which was laid a year ago, a wise 4nd
prudent measure for the same reason, namely to preserve our
j seamen and as much of our property as we could get in, but
not with the faintest hope that it would influence the British
Councils. At the same time 1 confidently expected that it
would be raised in a few months. I have not censured any of
these measures, because I knev/ the fond attachment of the
CORRESPONDENCE. 607
nation to them ; but I think the nation must soon be convinced
that they will not answer their expectations. The embargo
and the non-intercourse laws, I think, ought not to last long.
They will lay such a foundation of disaffection to the national
government as will give great uneasiness to Mr. Jefferson's suc-
cessor, and produce such distractions and confusions as I shud-
der to think of. The naval and military force to carry them
into execution would maintain a war.
Are you then for war, you will ask. I will answer you can-
didly. _Ijthink a war would be a less evil than a rigorous_
enforcement of the embargo and non-intercourse. But we have
no necessity to declare war against England or France, or both.
We may raise the embargo, repeal the non-intercourse, author-
ize our merchants to arm their vessels, give them special letters
of marque to defend themselves against all unlawful aggres-
sors, and take and burn or destroy all vessels, or make prize of
them as enemies, that shall attack them. In the mean time
apply all our resources to build frigates, some in every principal
seaport. These frigates ought not to be assembled in any one
port to become an object of a hostile expedition to destroy them.
They should be separated and scattered as much as possible
from New Orleans to Passamaquoddy. I never was fond of
jthe plan of building line of battle ships. Our policy is not to
fight squadrons at sea, but to have fast-sailing frigates to scour
the seas and make impression on the enemy's commerce ; and
in this way we can do great things. Our great seaports and
most exposed frontier places ought not to be neglected in their
fortifications; but I cannot see for what purpose a hundred
thousand militia are called out, nor why we should have so
large an army at present. The revenues applied to these uses
would be better appropriated to building frigates. We may
depend upon it, we shall never be respected by foreign powers
until they see that we are sensible of the great resources which
the Almighty in his benevolent providence has put into our
hands. No nation under the sun has better materials, architects,
or mariners for a respectable maritime power. I have no doubt
but our people, when they see a necessity, will cheerfully pay
the taxes necessary for their defence, and to support their union,
independence, and national honor. When our merchants are
armed, if they are taken, they cannot blame the government;
608 CORRESPONDENCE.
if they fight well, and captivate their enemies, they will acquire
glory and encouragement at home, and England or France
may determine for themselves whether they will declarejwar.
i believe neither will do it, because each will be afraid of our
joining the other. If either should, in my opinion, the other will
rescind ; but if we should have both to fight, it would not be
long before one or the other would be willing to make peace,
and I see not much difference between fighting both and fight-
ing England alone. My heart is with the Spanish patriots,
and I should be glad to assist them as far as our commerce
can supply them.
I conclude with acknowledging that we have received greater
injuries from England than from France, abominable as both
have been. I conclude that whatever the government deter-
mines, I shall support as far as my small voice extends.
N. B. The tribute and the British licenses must be prohibited
with adequate penalties.
TO F. A. VANDERKEMP.
Quincy, 16 February, 1809.
I have yours of the ISth of January. When you receive
your diploma, you will have no fees to pay. We have not yet
adopted any regulation which requires fees from the members
elected. Perhaps it would be prudent in future to adopt such
a measure, and give a salary to our secretary. Our officers are
now men of so much business, and so dependent on it for the
support of their families, that they cannot attend enough to the
business of the Academy. I would send you our transactions,
if I knew how. I spoke to Dr. Morse and Dr. Kirkland, but
they have not informed me of a conveyance.
The Dutch history, as you say, should be instructive to us.
The alliance with England has in the end been fatal to Holland.
The close connection between the house of Hanover and the
house of Orange, the Dutch policy to depend upon the protec-
tion of the English fleet, has given preponderance to the four
agricultural provinces over the three maritime provinces, and
CORRESPONDENCE. 609
induced the States General to neglect and abandon the marine
for the purpose of maintaining a standing array for the Prince
of Orange to review daily on the parade at the Hague. In
consequence, their independence has been lost. Beware I Oh,
_my country, beware I lest you suffer English or French intrigues
to render a naval power unpopular in America.
Robert Morris (since you ask me my opinion of him) was a
frank, generous, and manly mortal. He rose from nothing but
a naked boy, by his industry, ingenuity, and fidelity, to great
business and credit as a merchant. At the beginning of our
revolution, his commerce was stagnated, and as he had over-
traded, he was much embarrassed. He took advantage of the
times, united with the whigs, came into Congress, and united
his credit, supported by my loans in Holland, and resources of
the United States. By this means he supported his credit for
many years; but at last grew extravagant, as all conquerors and
extraordinary characters do, and died as he had lived, as I be-
lieve, all his days, worth very little solid capital. Like Lafon-
taine in his epitaph, he might say,
" Jean s'en alia comme 11 etait venu,
Mangea le fonds avec le revenu."
If you write dialogues of the dead, you must not put into the
mouth of Dumas your correct notions of government. He,
poor man, was too dependent on the French, and too devoted
to democracy, to advocate the true system of government. I
say with yon and Voltaire, —
" Vivons, 6crivons, aimons, buvons, claer Horace ! "
We may be reduced to hard necessities. The two most
powerful, active, and enterprising nations that ever existed are
now contending with us. The two nations, to whom mankind
are under more obligations for the progress of science and civil-
ization than to any others, except the Hebrews. This consider-
ation affects me more than the danger from either or both. I
excepted the Hebrews, for in spite of Bolingbroke and Voltaire,
I will insist that the Hebrews have done more to civilize men
than any other nation. If I were an atheist, and believed in
blind eternal fate, I should still believe that fate had ordained
the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing the
M 2
610 CORRESPONDENCE.
nations. If I were an atheist of the other sect, who believe or
pretend to believe that all is ordered by chance, I should believe
that chance had ordered the Jews to preserve and propagate to
all mankind the doctrine of a supreme, intelligent, wise, almighty
sovereign of the universe, which I believe to be the great essen-
tial principle of all morality, and consequently of all civilization.
/I cannot say that I love the Jews very much neither, nor the
French, nor the English, nor the Romans, nor the Greeks. We
must love all nations as well as we can, but it is very hard to
love most of them.
Our medium is depreciated by the multitude of swindling
banks, which have emitted bank bills to an immense amount
beyond the deposits of gold and silver in their vaults, by which
means the price of labor and land and merchandise and produce
is doubled, tripled, and quadrupled in many instances. Every
dollar of a bank bill that is issued beyond the quantity of gold
and silver in the vaults, represents nothing, and is therefore a
cheat upon somebody.
Solomon built Palmyra, the ruins of which show that his
magnificence was not a fable.
TO SKELTON JONES.
Quincy, 11 March, 1809.
I received yesterday your favor of the month of August, 1808,
and if the following answers to your questions will be any gra-
tification to your curiosity, or any aid to your work, they are at
your service.
1. My father was John Adams, the son of Joseph Adams, the
son of another Joseph Adams, the son of Henry Adams, who
all lived independent New England farmers, and died and lie
buried in this town of Quincy, formerly called Braintree, and
more anciently still. Mount Wollaston. My mother was Su-
sanna Boylston, daughter of Peter Boylston, of Brookline, the
oldest son of Thomas Boylston, a physician who came from
England in 1656, and purchased a farm in that town near
Boston.
CORRESPONDENCE. 611
2. I was born in Q.uincy, on the 19th of October, 1735.
3. My early life and education were, first at the public latin
school in the then town of Braintree ; then at a private academy
under Mr. Joseph Marsh, within three doors of my father's
house ; then at Harvard College, in Cambridge, where, after four
years' studies, I received a degree as bachelor of arts in 1755,
and, after three years more, that of master of arts.
4. Among these accidents,^ the principal that I recollect were
certain theological controversies, which were conducted, as I
thought, with an uncharitable spirit of intolerance that convinced
me I should be forever unfit for the profession of divinity, and
determined me to the profession of the law. To this cause
were added many compliments from my academical compa-
nions, who endeavored to make me believe that I had a voice
and a tongue, as well as a face and front, for a public speaker,
and that I was better fitted for the bar than the pulpit. For
the faculty of medicine I never had any inclination, having an
aversion to sick rooms and no fondness for rising at all hours
of the night to visit patients.
5. Mr. Maccarty, a clergyman of Worcester, authorized by
the selectmen, at the commencement at college, in 1755, hap-
pening to be pleased with the performance of my part in the
public exhibition, engaged me to take the charge of the latin
school in that town, whei'c in a few months 1 entered as a clerk
in tlie office of Colonel James Putnam, a counsellor at law in
very large practice and of very respectable talents and informa-
tion. Here, as I boarded in his family, I had opportunities of
conversing with all the judges, lawyers, and many others of the
principal characters of the province, and heard their speculations
upon public affairs. This was highly delightful to me, because
my fatiier, who had a public soul, had drawn my attention to
public affairs. From my earliest infancy I had listened with
eagerness to his conversation with his friends during the whole
expedition to Cape Breton, in 1745, and I had received very
grievous impressions of the injustice and ingratitude of Great
Britain towards New England in that whole transaction, as
well as many others before and after it, during the years 1754,
1 Mr. Jones's inquiry was, respecting " those accidents which decided your
destiny, and gave a color and complexion to all your future prospects and con-
duct."
612 CORRESPONDENCE.
1755, 1756, and 1757. The conduct of Generals Shirley, Brad-
dock, Abercrombie, Webb, and above all Lord Loudon, which
were daily discussed in Mr. Putnam's family, gave me such an
opinion and such a disgust of the British government, that I
heartily wished the two countries were separated for ever. I
was convinced we could defend ourselves against the French,
and manage our affairs better without, than with, the English.
In 1758 and 1759, Mr. Pitt coming into power, sent Wolfe, and
Amherst, whom I saw with his army, as they passed through
Worcester, and these conquered Cape Breton and Quebec. I
then rejoiced that I was an Englishman, and gloried in the
name of Briton. But, alas! how short was my triumph in
British wisdom and justice ! In February, 1761, I heard the
argument in the council chamber in Boston upon writs of
assistance, and there saw that Britain was determined to let
nothing divert me from my fidelity to my country.
6. 1 An inflexible course of studies and labors, to promote,
preserve, and secure that independence of my country, which I
so early saw to be inevitable, against all parties, factions, and
nations that have shown themselves unfriendly to it.
7. The 4th of March, 1801. The causes of my retirement are
to be found in the writings of Freneau, Markoe, Ned Church,
Andrew Brown, Paine, Callender, Hamilton, Cobbet, and John
Ward Fenno and many others, but more especially in the cir-
cular letters of members of Congress from the southern and
middle States. Without a complete collection of all these libels,
no faithful history of the last twenty years can ever be written,
nor any adequate account given of the causes of my retirement
from public life.
8. My life for the last eight years has been spent in the bosom
of my family, surrounded by my children and grandchildren ;
on my farm, in my garden and library. But in all this there is
nothing interesting to the public.
9. Five feet, seven or nine inches, I really know not which.
10. I have one head, four limbs, and five senses, like any
other man, and nothing peculiar in any of them.
11. I have been married forty-four years.
12. To Miss Abigail Smith, on the 25th of October, 1764, in
1 Mr. Jones's sixth question was as to " the part you acted during the time in
which you were in a pubUc station."
TO DANIEL WRIGHT AND ERASTUS LYMAN.
Qumcy, 13 March, 1809.
I have received your very civil letter of the 3d of this month
with emotions very similar to those which I felt many years
ago upon the following occasion.
1 14. " Anecdotes relative to yourself or any of your acquaintances who have
borne public offices."
- 16. " Has it (your temper) undergone any change ? " Mr. Jones's queries.
VOL. IX. 52
i
CORRESPONDENCE. 613
her father's house at Weymouth, the next town to this, and by
her father, who was a clergyman.
13. Three sons and a daughter.
14. This would require twenty volumes.^
15. My temper in general has been tranquil, except when any I /
instance of extraordinary madness, deceit, hypocrisy, ingratitude,
treachery or perfidy, has suddenly struck me. Then I have
always been irascible enough, and in three or four instances,
very extraordinary ones, too much so. The storm, however, ^
never lasted for half an hour, and anger never rested in the
bosom.
16. Very little, I believe.^
17. Under my first latin master, who was a churl, I spent my
time in shooting, skating, swimming, flying kites, and every
other boyish exercise and diversion I could invent. Never mis-
chievous. Under my second master, who was kind, I began to
love my books and neglect my sports,
18. From that time I have been too studious. At college,
next to the ordinary routine of classical studies, mathematics
and natural philosophy were my favorite pursuits. When I
began to study law, I found ethics, the law of nations, the civil
law, the common law, a field too vast to admit of many other
inquiries. Classics, history, and philosophy have, however,
never been wholly neglected to this day.
19. Such persons are all dead, or so old as to be incapable of
writing any long details.
20. I have no miniature, and have been too much abused by
painters ever to sit to any one again
614 CORRESPONDENCE.
Returning from Holland to Paris in 1784, I was invited to
dine, with my wife and daughter, by the Baron de Stael, ambas-
sador from Sweden. As I was the first of the corps diploma-
tique who arrived, the ambassador was showing me a fine portrait
of the King of Sweden, his master, when the Count Deodati,
ambassador from the Elector of Saxony, came in. After com-
pliments to De Stael, Deodati turned to me, whom he had
known several years before, and the following dialogue ensued.
Deodati. Very well, Mr. Adams, you are a republican, I sup-
pose.
Adams. You are in the right, Mr. Ambassador, I have the
honor to be a republican.
Deodati. And your countrymen are republican, and your
government is republican.
Adams. Certainly. My countrymen are republicans, and our
government is republican.
Deodati. And you have made your countrymen and your
government republican.
Adams. Not at all, Sir. My country and its government have
been republican from their origin, and long before I was born.
Deodati. Very well. You at least have made your country
very celebrated. You have made it independent. You have
made an astonishing treaty with Holland. You have made a
marvellous peace with England. You have made her acknow-
ledge your independence.
Adams. I beg your pardon. Sir. You are too polite. You
do me too much honor. I have no pretensions to have per-
formed all these great achievements. I have acted a part in
some of these affairs.
Deodati. But! Very well! I will now tell you the recom-
pense you will receive for all that you have done.
Adams. I shall be very glad to hear your prognostications
concerning my destiny.
Deodati. Your fortune will be that of all the republicans ;
of Aristides, of Phocion, of Miltiades, of Scipio, &c.. &c.
Adams. I believe it.
Deodati. You believe it ?
Adams. Yes.
Deodati. You will experience all the ingratitude, all the in-
justice of the ancient republicans.
CORRESPONDENCE. 615
- Adams. I expect it, and always have expected it.
Deodati. You will be ill-treated, hated, despised, and perse-
cuted.
Adams. I have no doubt of all that. It is in the ordinary
nature and course of things.
Diodati. Your virtue must be very heroical, or your philosophy
very stoical, to undertake all those adventures, with your eyes
open, for such a reward.
So much for Deodati and his warning voice; and so mucn
for my well-grounded anticipations. This is no fabulous dia-
logue of the dead, but strict historical truth. A curious coalition
of French and English emissaries with federal and republican
libellers, have so completely fulfilled the prophecy of Deodati
and my own forebodings, so totally destroyed my reputation
by their calumnies, that I have neither power nor influence to
do any thing for my country, to assist her in her present dis-
tresses, or guard her against future calamities. Nothing remains
to m,e but the right of private judgment, and that I exercise
freely, and communicate my sentiments as freely to those who
wish to know them.
I am totis virihus against any division of the Union, by the
North River, or by Delaware River, or by the Potomac, or any
other river, or by any chain of mountains. I am for maintain-
ing the independence of the nation at all events. I am no
advocate of Mr. Gore's declaration of war against France.
Knowing, as I do, from personal experience, the mutually
friendly dispositions between the people of France and the
people of America, Bonaparte out of the question, I shall be very
sorry to see them converted into ill will, and old English pre-
judices revived. Lasting injuries and misfortunes would arise
to this country from such a change. I am averse, also, to a war
with England, and wish to maintain our neutrality as long as
possible without conceding important principles. If either of
the belligerent powers forces us all into a war, I am for fighting
that power, whichever it may be.
I always consider the whole nation as my children ; but they
have almost all been undutiful to me. You two gentlemen are
almost the only ones, out of my own house, who have for a long
time, and I thank you for it, expressed a filial affection for
John Adams.
616 CORRESPONDENCE.
TO BENJAMIN RUSH.
Quincy, 12 April, 1809.
Thank you for your favor of the 1st. I might have quoted
Job as well as St. Paul as a precedent, but as I mix religion
with politics as little as possible, I chose to confine myself to
Cicero. You advise me to write my own life. I have made
several attempts, but it is so dull an employment that I cannot
endure it. I look so much like a small boy in my own eyes,
that, with all my vanity, I cannot endure the sight of the pic-
ture. I am glad you have resolved to do yourself justice. I
am determined to vindicate myself in some points while I live.
Inclosed is a whimsical specimen.^ In future I shall not be so
g-og;uenard.
The dialogue between Deodati and me is literal truth; that
is, it is a literal translation from the French, in which language
the conversation was held, and which I reduced to writing.
You may ask what reason I had for foreseeing such conse-
quences. I will give you a few hints among a thousand.
1. When I went home to my family in May, 1770, from the
town meeting in Boston, which was the first I had ever attended,
and where I had been chosen in my absence, without any solici-
tation, one of their representatives, I said to my wife, " I have
accepted a seat in the House of Representatives, and thereby
have consented to my own ruin, to your ruin, and the ruin of
our children. I give you this warning, that you may prepare
your mind for your fate." She burst into tears, but instantly
cried out in a transport of magnanimity, " Well, I am willing
in this cause to run all risks with you, and be ruined with you,
if you are ruined," These were times, my friend, in Boston,
which tried women's souls as well as men's.
2. I saw the awful prospect before me and my country in all
its horrors, and, notwithstanding all my vanity, was conscious
of a thousand defects in my own character as well as health,
which made me despair of going through and weathering the
storms in which I must be tossed.
3. In the same year, 1770, my sense of equity and humanity
1 A copy of the letter Immediately preceding this.
CORRESPONDENCE. 617
impelled me, against a torrent of unpopularity, and the inclina-
tion of all my friends, to engage in defence of Captain Preston
and the soldiers. My successful exertions in that cause, though
the result was perfectly conformable to law and justice, brought
upon me a load of indignation and unpopularity, which I knew
would never be forgotten, nor entirely forgiven. The Boston /*
newspapers to this day show that my apprehensions were well
founded.
4. You can testify for me that in 1774 my conduct in Con-
gress drew upon me the jealousy and aversion, not only of the
tories in Congress, who were neither few nor feeble, but of the
whole body of quakers and proprietary gentlemen in Pennsyl- i-
vania. I have seen and felt the consequences of these preju-
dicBS to this day.
5. I call you to witness that I was the first member of Con-
gress who ventured to come out in public, as I did in January,
1776, in my " Thoughts on Government, in a letter from a gentle-
man to his friend," that is, Mr. Wythe, in favor of a government,
inthre^e branches, with an independent judiciary. This pamphlet, '
you know, was very unpopular. No man appeared in public to
support it, but yourself. You attempted in the public papers to
give it some countenance, but without much success. Franklin ^
leaned against it. Dr. Young, Mr. Timothy Matlack, and Mr.
James Cannon, and I suppose Mr. George Bryan were alarmed
and displeased at it. Mr. Thomas Paine was so highly offended
with it, that he came to visit me at my chamber at Mrs. Yard's
to remonstrate and even scold at me for it, which he did in very
ungenteel terms. In return, I only laughed heartily at him, and
rallied him upon his grave arguments from the Old Testament
to prove that monarchy was unlawful in the sight of God.
"Do you seriously believe, Paine," said I, "in that pious doc-
trine of yours? " This put him in good humor, and he laughed
out. " The Old Testament ! " said he, " I do not believe in the
Old Testament. I have had thoughts of publishing my senti-
ments of it, but, upon deliberation, I have concluded to put
that off till the latter part of life." Paine's wrath was excited
because my plan of government was essentially different from
the silly projects that he had published in his " Common Sense."
By this means I became suspected and unpopular with the
52*
618 CORRESPONDENCE.
leading demagogues and the whole constitutional party in
Pennsylvania.
6. Upon my "return from France in 1779, 1 found myself elected
by my native town of Braintree a member of the Convention
for forming a Constitution for the State of Massachusetts. I
attended that convention of near four hundred members. Here
I found such a chaos of absurd sentiments concerning govern-
ment, that I was obliged daily, before that great assembly, and
afterwards in the Grand Committee, to propose plans, and ad-
vocate doctrines,, which were extremely unpopular with the
greater number, j Lieutenant-Governor Cushing was avowedly
for a single assefhbly, like Pennsylvania. Samuel Adams was
of the same mind. Mr. Hancock kept aloof, in order to be
governor. In short, I had at first no support but from the
Essex junto, who had adopted my ideas in the letter to Mr.
Wythe. , They supported me timorously, and at last would not
go with me to so high a mark as I aimed at, which was a com-
plete negative in the governor upon all laws. They made me,
however, draw up the Constitution, and it was finally adopted,
I with some amendments very much for the worse. The bold,
decided, and determined part I took in this assembly in favor
of a good government, acquired me the reputation of a man of
high principles and strong notions in government, scarcely com-
patible with republicanism. A foundation was here laid of
I much jealousy and unpopularity among the democratical people
in this State.
7. In Holland, I had driven the English party and the stock-
holders' party before me, like clouds before the wind, and had
brought that power to unite cordially with America, France,
and Spain against England. If I had not before alienated the
whole English nation from me, this would have been enough
V to produce an eternal jealousy of me; and I fully believed that
whenever a free intercourse should take place between Britain
and America, I might depend upon their perpetual ill will to me,
and that their influence would be used to destroy mine.
8. In all my negotiations in France and Holland in 1778,
1779, 1780, 1781, 1782, 1783, and 1784, I had so uniformly
resisted all the arts and intrigues of the Count de Verajennes
and M. de Sartine and all their satellites, and that with 'such
perfect success, that I well knew, although they treated me
CORRESPONDENCE. 619
with great external respect, yet in their hearts they had con-
ceived an ineradicable jealousy and aversion to me. T well
knew, therefore, that French influence in Amisrica would do all
in its power to trip me up.
9. Dr. Franklin's behavior had been so excessively complaisant
to the French ministry, and in my opinion had so endangered
the essential interests of our country, that I had been frequently
obliged to differ from him, and sometimes to withstand him to
his face ; so that I knew he had conceived an irreconcilable hatred
of me, and that he had propagated and would continue to pro-
pagate prejudices, if nothing worse, against me in America"
from one end of it to the other. Look into Benjamin Franklin
Bache's Aurora and Duane's Aurora for twenty years, and see
whether my expectations have not been verified.
With all these reflections fresh in my mind, you may judge
whether my anticipations in the good-humored conversation
with Deodati were rash, peevish, or ill grounded.
In short, I have every reason to acknowledge the protecting
providence of God, from my birth, and especially through my
public life. I have gone through life with much more safety
and felicity than I ever expected. With devout gratitude I
acknowledge the divine favor in many instances, and among
others for giving me a friend in you, who, though you would
never follow me as a disciple, have always been my friend.
TO JOSEPH LYMAN.
Qulncy, 20 April, 1809.
I have received your respectful letter of the 21st of March.
It is not now necessary for me to say any thing concerning
many of the topics. To explain myself fully, and enter into
the histories of past occurrences alluded to, would require a
volume.
I have forsaken the persons and interest of none of my friends.
The leaders to whom the federal party has now blindly aban-
doned itself, were never my friends.
I have departed from no principle. My invariable principle
for five-and-thirty years has been, to promote, preserve, and
620 CORRESPONDENCE.
secure the integrity of the Union, and the independence of the
nation, against the policy of England as well as France.
When France attempted to degrade us, I exerted all my in-
dustry to arouse, inspire, and animate my fellow-citizens to
resistance, and with so much success, that the then French
government were compelled to retract. If for this service I had
no thanks from the republicans, I had nothing but insolence
and scuiTility from the federalists. Look back and read the
federal newspapers in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia of
that period, you will then see how I was treated. If your
namesake, of Springfield, who was then a representative in
Congress, one of the most amiable of men, were now alive, he
could inform you, as he did me, with the kindest expressions of
attachment to me, and indignation against the treachery of my
pretended federal friends. He assured me that the federalists
in New York, with Hamilton at their head, had in secret caucus
agreed to sacrifice Adams. I had other information from other
quarters, that at the meeting of the Cincinnati at New York,
when they chose Hamilton their President- General, it was
agreed, and the reverend doctors of divinity (and there were
several of these present) concurred in the pious project and the
pious language, to sacrifice Adams, and bring in Pinckney. The
intrigues they practised to accomplish this were very extensive
and very Jesuitical ; but to develop them would lead me too far.
I will only add that the Boston and the Pennsylvania, if not
the South Carolina federal leaders were in the same plot. They
were assisted, too, by the publications in England, particularly
the Anti-Jacobin, then under the direction of Mr. Canning. I
know that French influence drove me into banishment; but it
would not have had the power, if it had not been essentially
assisted by the pharisaical, Jesuitical, machiavelian intrigue
and influence of the leading federalists.
I assure you, Sir, " a war with England will not meet my
hearty reprobation," if England makes it necessary. England
and France have both given us just cause for war, but neither
has yet made it necessary. The first of the two that shall ren-
der war necessary, shall have my vote for it.
I am surprised that you should think there is no pretext or
excuse for a war with England, that you should talk of their
bearing so much with the waywardness of our government,
CORRESPONDENCE. 621
and that she has done nothing to injure us but from a principle
of necessary self-defence, and a retaliation of injuries from their
adversaries, which we had not the dignity to resent and repel.
As you say, Mr. Adams would not have done thus. I assure
you, Mr. Adams would have resisted and repelled, to the utmost
of his power, the British proclamation of blockade of eleven
hundred miles of sea-coast, from the Elbe to Brest, which was
the first of the diabolical warfare of blockade, decrees, and
orders of council. The Berlin decree is expressly grounded on
a principle of retaliation. The wickedness of this first blockade
cannot be set in a true light without detailing the history of
Antwerp, the Schcld, Ostend, Nieuport, &c., the objects of all
the Flanders wars for centuries.
In plain English, Great Britain is the first sinner, and the
original guilt of ovir present calamities lies at her door, though
France, in point of actual transgression, is not much behind her.
The federal papers for the last year or two, assisted by English
hirelings, have been employed in varnishing over the conduct
of Great Britain, and in calumniating every impartial and dis-
interested man, till they appear to have obtained a temporary
majority in New England. I greatly respect the public opinion
of New England, when it is truly informed. In the present
instance, with infinite grief I fear it is not. The press has not
been free.
I am not able to see how the federalists are to get along with
their new friends, the old English. If they succeed, I shall wish
them joy, but I cannot expect to live to enjoy that felicity.
TO SAMUEL PERLEY.
Quincy, 19 June, 1809.
I received your favor of the 12th. You propose to me an
abridgment of my works. Some fifty-five years ago, I learned
from Lord Coke, that abridgments were chiefly useful to the
makers of them. It would be of no use to me to abridge my
poor productions ; besides, I had rather write as many new ones
than undertake to abridge the old ones.
You say that our ungovernable newspapers have published
622 CORRESPONDENCE.
something concerning my works, to my disadvantage. I thank
you for this epithet " ungovernable." It is so fine an expression,
and at the same time so simple, natural, and exact, that I won-
der it has never occurred before. A great minister of State, in
the estimation of the world, the Comte de Vergennes, once
said to me, " Mr. Adams, the newspapers govern the world ! "
Let me ask you, Mr. Perley, whether this apothegm has not
been verified in our own country, sometimes to her profit, and
sometimes to her loss. Let me ask you again, if the world is
governed by ungovernable newspapers, whether it does not
follow by necessary logical consequence that the world is un-
governable.
The newspapers have represented my WTitings as monarchi-
cal, as having a monarchical tendency ; as aristocratical, and
having an aristocratical tendency. In answer to these charges,
I only ask that they may be read.
I have represented the British Constitution as the most per-
fect model that has as yet been discovered or invented by
human genius and experience, for the government of the great
nations of Europe. It is a masterpiece. It is the only system
that has preserved or can preserve the shadow, the color, the
semblance of liberty to the people in any of the great nations
of Europe. Consider the republics, Venice, Holland, Switzer-
land ; not a particle of liberty to the people was preserved in
any of them more than there was in France, nor so much
either. Our own Constitutions I have represented as the best
for us in our peculiar situation, and while we preserve ourselves
independent and unallied to any of the great powers of Europe.
An alliance with either France or England would, in my humble
opinion, put an end to our fine system of liberty.
Let me give you a few hints of the history of my " Defence
of the Constitutions of Government of the United States."
In 1775 and 1776 there had been great disputes, in Congress
and in the several States, concerning a proper constitution for
the several States to adopt for their government. A Convention
in Pennsylvania had adopted a government in one representa-
tive assembly, and Dr. Franklin was the President of that Con-
vention. The Doctor, when he went to France in 1776, carried
with him the printed copy of that Constitution, and it was im-
mediately propagated through France that this was the plan
CORRESPONDENCE. 623
of government of Mr. Franklin. In truth, it was not Franklin,
but Timothy Matlack, James Cannon, Thomas Young, and
Thomas Paine, who were the authors of it. Mr. Turgot, the
Duke de la Rochefoucauld, Mr. Condorcet, and many others,
became enamored with the Constitution of Mr. Franldin. And
in my opinion, the two last owed their final and fatal catastrophe
to this blind love.
In 17S0, when I arrived in France, I carried a printed copy
of the report of the Grand Committee of the Massachusetts
Convention, which I had drawn up ; and this became an object
of speculation. Mr. Turgot, the Duke de la Rochefoucauld,
and Mr. Condorcet and others, admired Mr. Franklin's Con-
stitution and reprobated mine. Mr. Turgot, in a letter to
Dr. Price, printed in London, censured the American Constitu-
tion as adopting three branches, in imitation of the Constitution
of Great Britain. The intention was to celebrate Franklin's
Constitution and condemn mine. I understood it, and un-
dertook to defend my Constitution, and it cost me three
volumes.
In justice to myself, however, I ought to say, that it was not
the miserable vanity of justifying my own work, or eclipsing
the glory of Mr. Franklin's, that induced me to write. I never
thought of writing till the Assembly of Notables in France had
commenced a revolution, with the Duke de la Rochefoucauld
and Mr. Condorcet at their head, who I knew would establish a
government 4n one assembly, and that I knew would involve
France and all Europe in all the horrors we have seen ; carnage
and desolation, for fifty, perhaps for a hundred years.
At the same time, every western wind brought us news of
town and county meetings in Massachusetts, adopting Mr.
Turgot's ideas, condemning my Constitution, reprobating the
office of governor and the assembly of the Senate as expensive,
useless, and pernicious, and not only proposing to toss them
off, but rising in rebellion against them.
In thfs situation I was determined to wash my hands of the
blood that was about to be shed in France, Europe, and Ame-
rica, and show to the world that neither my sentiments nor
actions should have any share in countenancing or encouraging
any such pernicious, destructive, and fatal schemes. In this
view I wrote my defence of the American Constitutions. I had
624 CORRESPONDENCE.
only the Massachusetts Constitution in view, and such others
as agreed with it in the distribution of the legislative power
into three branches, in separating the executive from the legis-
lative power, and the judiciary power from both. These three
volumes had no relation to the Constitution of the United
States. That \vas not in existence, and I scarcely knew that
such a thing was in contemplation till I received it at the mo-
ment my third volume was about to issue from the press. 1
had hardly time to annex it at the end.
I was personally acquainted with Mr. Turgot, the Duke de
la Rochefoucauld, and Mr. Condorcet. They were as amiable,
as learned, and as honest men as any in PVance. But such
was their inexperience in all that relates to free government, so
superficial their reading in the science of government, and so
obstinate their confidence in their own great characters for
science and literature, that I should trust the most ignorant of
our honest town meeting orators to make a Constitution sooner
than any or all of them.
And now. Sir, give my compliments to Mr. Simon Greenleaf,
your lawyer, and tell him that he is welcome to publish this
letter, if he pleases, provided he publishes yours before it, not
otherwise.
TO F. A. VANDERKEMP.
Quincy, 15 December, 1809.
I have received your kind letter of the 28th of November, and
another, some time ago, that I have not answered.
I rejoice with you in your prosperity, particularly in the happy
marriage of your son, and sympathize in all your sorrows, more
especially in the misfortune of your friend Vreede, whom I re-
member well.
Happy are you in your various learning, and the enjoyment
of your books ; I can read but little, on account of my eyes.
My wife and children and grandchildren are very good to read
to me, but they cannot always read when I want, nor always
such books as I should choose.
There is in one of the last Anthologies a handsome character
of our friend Mr. John Luzac, which I hope you will read with
pleasure. I should be glad to know who wrote it.
CORRESPONDENCE. 625
It is a little remarkable that you never heard the literary
character of my consort. There have been few ladies in the
world of a more correct or elegant taste. A collection of her
letters, for the forty-five years that we have been married, would
be worth ten times more than Madame de Sevigne's, though
not so perfectly measured in syllables and letters, and would,
or at least ought to put to the blush Lady Mary Wortley Mon-
tagu and all her admirers. So much you will say, for conjugal
complaisance. So much, I say, for simple justice to her merit.
What shall I say to you concerning your diploma ? I have
spoken twenty times to our secretaries to prepare and send it,
and have as often been promised. But we are all men of busi-
ness ; our secretaries have been members of Congress, and 1
begin to think that politicians never should be academicians.
When I was in Leyden, a gentleman was introduced to me,
I know not by whom, who presented me with a small volume
of Latin poetry of his own composition. In it was the famous
compliment to Dr. Franklin, —
Eripuit ccelo fulmen, sceptrumque tj'rannis,
and I aKvays understood that gentleman to be the author of it.
Can you tell me his name ? It has been, in France and the
world, attributed to Mr. Turgot ; but I have always understood
that Mr. Turgot took it from that volume, and only altered it to
" Eripuit c(eIo fubneri ; mox sceptnim tijrannis.'^ Pray, tell me,
if you can, the name and character of that Leyden Latin poet,
and whether my memory has not deceived me.
I am in the last year of my fifteenth lustre, and write with
great difficulty. But as long as I can write at all, I shall ex-
press to Mr. Vanderkemp my best wishes for his happiness.
Your question, " Through what means the military and com-
mercial spirit can be most effectually entertained, and rendered
permanently advantageous to a free nation, under a republican
form of government," is of great importance. But no man
would discuss it. Nine tenths of our nation would say the
militia, the other tenth a standing army. The merchants would
all say, " let commerce alone — merchants do as they please ; "
others would say, " protect trade with a navy ; " others, " let
commerce be annihilated." Such questions would only make
of our academies so many political caucuses.
VOL. IX. 53 N 2
626 CORRESPONDENCE.
TO BENJAMIN RUSH.
Quincy, 21 January, 1810.
Learned, ingenious, benevolent, beneficent old friend of 1774!
Thanks for "the light and truth," as I used to call the Aurora,
which you sent me. You may descend in a calm, but I have
lived in a storm, and shall certainly die in one.^
I never asked my son any questions about the motives, de-
signs, or objects of his mission to St. Petersburgh.^ If I had
been weak enough to ask, he would have been wise enough to
be silent ; for although a more dutiful and affectionate son is
not in existence, he knows his obligations to his country and his
trust are superior to all parental requests or injunctions. I
know therefore no more of his errand than any other man. If
he is appointed to be a Samson to tie the foxes' tails together
with a torch or firebrand between them, I know nothing of it.
One thing I know, we ought to have had an ambassador there
these thirty years ; and we should have had it, if Congress had
not been too complaisant to Vergennes. Mr. Dana was upon
the point of being received, and had a solemn promise of a
reception, when he was recalled. Under all the circumstances
of those times, however, I cannot very severely blame Congress
for this conduct, though I think it was an error. It is of great
importance to us at present to know more than we do of the
views, interests, and sentiments of all the northern powers. If
we do not acquire more knowledge than we have, of the present
and probable future state of Europe, we shall be hoodwinked
and bubbled by the French and English.
Of Mr. Jackson, his talents, knowledge, manners, or morals,
I know nothing, but am not unwilling to think favorably of
them all. His conduct to our President and his minister is not,
however, a letter of recommendation of his temper, policy, or
discretion. His lady was an intimate acquaintance of my
daughter, and consequently well known to both my sons at
1 " I inclose a few numbers of the Aurora. Shall we descend In a calm or a
storm to our graves ? " B. Rush to J. A.
" " We are told your son is gone to Petersburgh to put a torch to the flame
of war, and that we are to be allies of France, and of all the powers on the
Baltic, in it." B. R. to J. A.
CORRESPONDENCE. 627
Berlin. Thomas speaks handsomely of her person and accom-
plishments.
I have not seen, but am impatient to see, Mr. Cheetham's life
of Mr. Paine. His political \vritings, I am singular enough to
believe, have done more harm than his irreligious ones. He
understood neither government nor religion. From a malignant
heart he wrote virulent declamations, which the enthusiastic
fury of the times intimidated all men, even Mr. Burke, from
answering as he ought. His deism, as it appears to me, has
promoted rather than retarded the cause of revolution in Ame-
rica, and indeed in Europe. His billingsgate, stolen from
Blount's Oracles of Reason, from Bolingbroke, Voltaire, Beren-
ger, &c., will never discredit Christianity, which will hold its j
ground in some degree as long as human nature shall have any j
thing moral or intellectual left in it. The Christian religion, as
I understand it, is the brightness of the glory and the express
portrait of the character of the eternal, self-existent, independent,
benevolent, all powerful and all merciful creator, preserver, and
father of the u^niverse, the first good, first perfect, and first fair.
It will last as long as the world. Neither savage nor civilized
man, without a revelation, could ever have discovered or invented
it. Ask me not, then, whether I am a Catholic or Protestant,
Calvinist or Arminian. As far as they are Christians, I wish
to be a fellow-disciple with them all.
TO DAVID SEWALL.
Quincy, 29 January, 1811.
I have received your favor of the 24th, and it revived or
restored many of the sensations of my youth.
The last trial before a special court of Vice- Admiralty in
Boston, before the^revolution, was of Ansell Nickerson for piracy
and murder on the high seas.
The case was very sinsrular and unaccountable. Nickerson
took a passage on board a small vessel, and sailed from Boston
for Cape Cod, with three or four other men. The next day, or
next but one, the vessel was found with Nickerson alone on
628 CORRESPONDENCE.
board. All the other men had vanished. No blood or other
marks of violence appeared. A sum of money of no great
amount had been shipped on board by one of the other men,
which was not found. It was suspected that Nickerson had
murdered all the other men, for the sake of the money, but no
money was found upon him, or hidden in the ship. Nickerson's
character was unimpeachable and irreproachable in all his for-
mer life. His account was that a pirate came on board and
pressed the men ; but that he had leaped over the stern to avoid
them, and hung there out of sight, by some thing, the technical
term for which, in naval architecture, I have forgotten, till the
pirates departed.
Nickerson was libelled in the Special Court of Vice- Admiralty
by Jonathan Sewall, Advocate-General, who was aided by Sam.
Fitch, if I remember rightly. There was no grand jury nor
petit jury. I was of counsel for Nickerson, but was not en-
gaged till the trial came on, when he requested the Court to
appoint me. I did not move for any jury in this case. Josiah
Quincy, the father of our foremost orator in Congress, was
with me.
An act of parliament had provided for the erection of these
special courts. They were to consist of fifteen judges, to be
chosen out of the governors, lieutenant-governors, and counsel-
lors of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island, the
Judge of Admiralty, and the Commander-in-chief of the king's
ships on this station. Admiral Montague sat upon this trial
with Bernard, Wentworth, Hutchinson, Auchmuty, and others,
counsellors from New Hampshire and Rhode Island, &c.
The man was acquitted ; but I never knew upon what prin-
ciple, nor by what majority of votes. The judges in that court
did not, in any case that I was concerned in, give their opinions
publicly and individually from the bench. They adjourned,
consulted together in private, and authorized the president to
pronounce the judgment of the court, which was done by Ber-
nard, without informing what was the majority.
I suppose the want of direct evidence afforded room for a
doubt in the minds of a majority.
Nickerson lived many years, and behaved well, and is living
yet, for what I know.
In a former trial, that of Michael Corbet, and three other
CORRESPONDENCE. 629
sailors, for piracy, and murder of Lieutenant Panton, of the
Rose frigate, I demanded juries, grand and petit, and drew a
plea in writing for each of the four, demanding juries as a right.
I almost killed myself by writing, night and day, four of those
pleas of enormous length, in which a number of acts of parlia-
ment were recited at large.
These pleas, when they were read, appeared to make a great
impression on the court, and even Hutchinson seemed to favor
the idea of juries. But before any gentleman had time to
speak, he moved an adjournment. The audience believed we
should have juries, and Jonathan Sewall said he did not doubt
it. But the court met in retirement, and the next morning the
judgment of the court was pronounced, without informing us
who, or whether any, dissented. Commodore Hood sat upon
this trial, and behaved remarkably well. I do not remember
that the evidence was reduced to WTiting by any authority,
besides the minutes taken by the counsel and some of the
judges.
Our classmate Farrar, of New Ipswich, must be remembered
with Wheeler and Gushing. He made me a kind visit a few
months before his death. Wentvvorth, Gardner, Sewall, Dal-
ton, Whittemore, Adams, and Hemmenway, are all that remain;
and these seven are a greater number, in proportion, than any
other class has preserved. The melancholy news you give me
of Dr. Hemmenway afflicts me very much. My affection for
him, which began when we first entered college, has continued
and increased till it is become veneration. The other six can-
not long expect to survive Dr. Hemmenway. I rejoice to see
in your handwriting a proof of the firmness of your health, and
wish you as many days as you can make useful or agreeable,
being your affectionate classmate and sincere friend.
TO JOSIAH QUINCY.
Quincy, 9 February, 1811.
I have received with much pleasure your favor of the 29th of
January. Before I proceed, let me premise a few preliminaries.
53
630 CORRESPONDENCB.
1. I disclaim all pretensions and thoughts of authority, supe-
riority, or influence, arising from age, experience, or any thing
else; and expect and desire and insist that you give no more
attention or respect to any opinion of mine than if it were the
opinion of the celebrated sexton of our church, Caleb Hayden.
2, That difference of opinion make no unnecessary alteration
in private friendship. In the course of my life I have differed
in sentiments, in religion and politics, from my master Putnam,
and my master Gridley, and fifty others of my friends, without
any diminution of esteem or regard. I have differed for many
years in political sentiments from your grandfather, your uncle
Samuel, your cousin Jonathan Sewall, Daniel Leonard, and
some others, the most intimate friends I ever enjoyed, without
the smallest personal altercation, and, I am bold to say, without
a diminution of esteem on either side. I might enumerate a
long catalogue of others in subsequent periods, but you will
think you already have enough of my gossiping garrulity.
Now for your letter. When I applied the epithet " glorious"
to the uncertainty of politics, I meant it ironically, as \\e say
the " glorious uncertainty of the law." Those who smarted
under the lash of the law probably applied it sarcastically to
the lawyers, as the frogs said to the boys who pelted them, " It
is sport to you, but death to us."
I ought not to object to your reverence for your fathers, as
you call them, meaning, I presume, the government, and those
concerned in the direction of public affairs ; much less can I be
displeased at your numbering me among them. But, to tell
you a very great secret, as far as I am capable of comparing the
merit of different periods, I have no reason to believe that we
w^ere better than you are. We had as many poor creatures and
selfish beings, in proportion, among us as you have among you;
nor were there then more enlightened men, or in greater number,
in proportion, than there are now.
" Heaven from all creatures hides the book of fate." " Le
grand rouleau en haut^'' cannot be read by our telegraphic
telescopes.
Should I let loose my imagination into futurity, I could
imagine that I foresee changes and revolutions, such as eye
hath not seen nor ear heard ; changes in forms of government,
changes in religion, changes in ecclesiastical establishments,
CORRESPONDENCE. 631
changes in armies and navies, changes in alliances and foreign
relations, changes in commerce, &c., &c., &c., without end. I
cannot see any better principle at present than to make as little
innovation as possible ; keep things going as well as we can
in the present train.
The Union appears to me to be the rock of oiir salvation, and
every reasonable measure for its preservation is expedient. Upon
this principle, I own, I was pleased with the purchase of Louis-
iana, because, without it, we could never have secured and com-
manded the navigation of the Mississippi. The western country
would infallibly have revolted from the Union. Those States
would have united with England, or Spain, or France, or set
up an independence, or done any thing else to obtain the free
use of that river. I wish the Constitution had been more
explicit, or that the States had been consulted ; but it seems
Congress have not entertained any doubts of their authority,
and I cannot say that they are destitute of plausible arguments
to support their opinion.
Your eloquence and oratory upon this question are worthy
of your father, your grandfather, and your great grandfather.
You spoke your own sentiments, I doubt not, with integrity, and
the sense of a majority of your immediate constituents, and
will not only increase your popularity with them, but extend
your fame as a statesman and an orator ; but will not influence
at present the great body of the people in the nation.
Prophecies of division have been familiar in my ears for six-
and-thirty years. They have been incessant, but have had no
other effect than to increase the attachment of the people to the
Union. However lightly we may think of the voice of the
people sometimes, they not unfrequently see farther than you
or I, in many great fundamental questions ; and you may
depend upon it, they see, in a partition of the Union, more dan-
ger to American liberty than poor Ames's distempered imagi-
nation conceived, and a total loss of independence for both
fragments, or all the fragments, of the Union.
But I was about saying a word upon the Constitution. You
appear to be fully convinced that the Convention had it not
in contemplation to admit any State or States into our confede-
ration, then situated without the limits of the thirteen States.
In this point I am not so clear. The Constitution, it is true,
632 CORRESPONDENCE. %
must speak for itself, and be interpreted by its own phraseology;
yet the history and state of things at the time may be consulted
to elucidate the meaning of words, and determine the bond fide
intention of the Convention. Suppose we should admit, for
argument's sake, that no member of the Convention foresaw the
purchase of Louisiana! It will not follow that many of them
did not foresee the necessity of conquering, some time or other,
the Floridas and New Orleans, and other territories on this side
of the Mississippi. The state of things between this country
and Spain in 1787, was such as to render the apprehensions of a
war with that power by no means improbable. The boundaries
were not settled, the navigation of the river was threatened, and
Spain was known to be tampering, and England too.
You think it impossible the Convention could have a thought
of war with Great Britain, and the conquest of Canada. In
this point I differ from you very widely. The conduct of Great
Britain, and the conduct of our States, too, was such as to keep
up very serious apprehensions between the two powers. The
treaty of peace was not fulfilled on either side. The English
had carried away the negroes, in direct violation of a most
express stipulation ; they held possession by strong garrisons of
a long chain of posts within our territory, commanding many
nations of Indians, among whom they excited dispositions hos-
tile to us ; the limits were not settled against Nova Scotia, and
many turbulences between the inhabitants arose. On the other
side the old debts were not paid, and positive laws existed in
many, if not most, of the States, against their recovery. I there-
fore think it highly probable that the Convention meant to
authorize Congress in future to admit Canada and Nova Scotia
into the Union, in case we should have a war, and be obliged to
conquer them by kindness or force.
As I love a freedom and boldness in debate, I was sorry to
see the personalities against you and your constituents ; yet I
think Mr. Poindexter and others have offered arguments in
answer to you of gi'eat weight. The precedent in the admis-
sion of Vermont I have not seen answered.
CORKESPONDENCE. 633
TO JOSIAH QUINCY.
Quincy, 18 February, 1811.
I owe you thanks for your speech on place and patronage.
The moral and patriotic sentiments are noble and exalted, the
eloquence masterly, and the satire inimitable. There are not in
Juvenal nor in Swift any images to be found more exquisitely
ridiculous than the Charleston hack, and the treasury swill-trough
and piggery. But are you right in supposing the rage for office
more eager and craving now than it always has been, or more
grasping and intriguing for executive offices than for legislative
stations ? Have you read many of the circular letters ? Have
you attended much to the course of elections, even in our New
England town meetings ?
General Joseph Warren was President of the Massachusetts
Provincial Congress in 1775, and he often said that he never
had till then any idea or suspicion of the selfishness of this
people, or their impatient eagerness for commissions.
I will tell you none of my experiences during the eight years
I was Vice-President, or the four following years ; but there is
no necessity for the same reserve when, in 1776 and 1777, I was
president of the board of war, or, in less pompous phrase, chair-
man of the committee of war. In this capacity, all applications
to Congress, to General Washington, and to the board, for
commissions and promotions in the army, and for contracts,
commissaryships, quartermasterships, &c., were committed to
me. And I really think as much zeal appeared then as there
has been seen since. Yet the military commissions were not
very lucrative.
Again ; are you right in imputing all this zeal to avarice ?
The ardor for commissions in the militia in New England,
where no money is to be got, but much to be spent, is as intense
as any ardor whatever. The post of clerk, sergeant, corporal,
and even drummer and fifer, is coveted as earnestly as the best
gift of major-general. There is no people on earth so ambitious
ds the people of America. The reason is, because the lowest can
aspire as freely as the highest. The highest offices are as fair
objects to the tradesman or farmer as to the lawyer, the priest,
physician, or merchant. In other countries, none of those ranks
634 CORRESPONDENCE.
think of commissions. Employment and profit in their private
occupations and pursuits is all they wish. Ambition and all
its hopes are extinct.
But I have more serious objections to Mr. Macon's motion,
as well as to your amendment. 1. Both the motion and the
amendment would be ineffectual. If fathers, sons, and brothers
were proscribed, there would be the same zeal and exertions for
cousins first, second, third, and fourth, and for grandfathers, and
grandsons, and uncles, and, what is oftener a stimulus than any
of these relations, for friends who have been or will be active
agents and instruments in promoting the member's interest
among his constituents, and procuring him votes. This is the
great spring of all in the minds of senators and representatives,
to obtain favors for favorites among their constituents, in order
to attach them by gratitude and establish their own influence
at home and abroad. No law, no constitution that human wit
or wisdom can devise, can ever prevent senators or representa-
tives from soliciting offices and favors for their friends.
2. Both the motion and amendment appear to me unconsti-
tutional. The President has, or ought to have, the whole nation
before him, and he ought to select the men best qualified and
most meritorious for offices at his own responsibility, without
being shackled by any check by law, constitution, or institution.
Without this unrestrained liberty, he is not a check upon the
legislative power nor either branch of it. Indeed, he must be
the slave of the party that brought him in. He never can be
independent or impartial.
3. Both the motion and amendment are in the pure spirit of
aristocracy. Neither Mr. Macon nor yourself considered it in
that light ; but it is exactly in the temper and spirit of all corps
of nobility, jealous of the power of the executive, since the crea-
tion. This jealousy is often actuated by the purest spirit of
patriotism, and the most perfect integrity, but if it is not
checked and controlled, it never has ceased to encroach, until it
has made the executive a mere head of wood, and drawn all the
power and resources of the nation into the insatiable gulf, the
irresistible vortex, of an aristocracy or an oligarchy.
CORRESPONDENCE. 635
TO BENJAMIN RUSH.
Quincy, 28 August, 1811.
Your letter of the 20th, my dear friend, has filled my eyes
with tears, and, indurated stoic as I am, my heart with sensations
unutterable by my tongue or pen; not the feelings of vanity,
but the overwhelming sense of my own unworthiness of such a
panegyric from such a friend. Like Louis the sixteenth, I said
to myself, " QiCest ce que f ai fait pour le meriter?
Have I not been employed in mischief all my days? Did
not the American revolution produce the French revolution?
And did not the French revolution produce all the calamities
and desolations to the human race and the whole globe ever
since? I meant wel], however. My conscience was clear as a
crystal glass, without a scruple or a doubt. I was borne along
by an irresistible sense of duty. God prospered our labors ;
and, awful, dreadful, and deplorable as the consequences have
been, I cannot but hope that the ultimate good of the world, of
the human race, and of our beloved country, is intended and
will be accomplished by it. While I was in this reverie, I
handed your letter to my brother Cranch, the postmaster, of
eighty-five years of age, an Israelite indeed, who read it with
great attention, and at length started up and exclaimed, " I have
known you sixty years, and I can bear testimony as a witness
to every word your friend has said in this letter in your favor."
This completed my humiliation and confusion.
Your letter is the most serious and solemn one I ever received
in my life. It has aroused and harrowed up my soul. I know
not what to say in answer to it, or to do in consequence of it.
It is most certain that the end of my life cannot be remote.
My eyes are constantly fixed upon it, according to the precept or
advice of the ancient philosopher ; and, if I am not in a total
delusion, I daily behold and contemplate it without dismay.
If by dedicating all the rest of my days to the composition
of such an address as you propose,^ I could have any rational
I " Suppose you avail yourself, wliile in health, of the sensibility 'whifli awaits
the public mind to your character soon after your death, by leaving behind you
a posthumous address to the citizens of the United States, in which shall be
inculcated all those great national, social, domestic, and religious virtues, which
alone can make a people free, great, and happy." B. Rush to J. A.
636 CORRESPONDENCE.
assurance of doing any real good to my fellow-citizens of
United America, I would cheerfully lay aside all other occupa-
tions and amusements, and devote myself to it. But there are
difficulties and embarrassments in the way, which to me, at
present, appear insuperable.
The " sensibility of the public mind," which you anticipate
at my decease, will not be so favorable to my memory as you
seem to foresee. By the treatment I have received, and con-
tinue to receive, I should expect that a large majority of all
parties would cordially rejoice to hear that my head was laid
low.
I am surprised to read your opinion, that " my integrity has
never been called in question, and that friends and enemies
agree in believing me to be an honest man." ^ If I am to judge
by the newspapers and pamphlets that have been printed in
America for twenty years past, I should think that both parties
believed me the meanest villain in the world.
If they should not suspect me of sinning in the grave, they
will charge me with selfishness and hypocrisy before my death,
in preparing an address to move the passions of the people, and
excite them to promote my children, and perhaps to make my
' son a king. Washington and Franklin could never do any
^ thing but what was imputed to pure, disinterested patriotism;
I never could do any thing but what was ascribed to sinister
i motives.
I agree with you in sentiment, that religion and virtue are
the only foundations, not only of republicanism and of all free
government, but of social felicity under all governments and in
all the combinations of human society. But if I should incul-
cate this doctrine in my will, I should be charged with hypo-
crisy and a desire to conciliate the good will of the clergy
/ towards my family, as I was charged by Dr. Priestley and his
I friend Cooper, and by Quakers, Baptists, and I know rtot how
many other sects, for instituting a national fast, for even com-
mon civility to the clergy, and for being a church-going animal.
If I should inculcate those "national, social, domestic, and
religious virtues " you recommend, I should be suspected and
' " You stand nearly alone In the history of our public men, in never having
had your integrity called in question, or even suspected. Friends and enemies
agree in believing you to be an honest man." B. Rush to J. A.
CORRESPONDENCE. 637
charged with an hypocritical, machiavelian, Jesuitical, pharisai-
cal attempt to promote a national establishment ofJr*resbyterian-
isrrj. in America ; whereas I would as soon establish the Epis-
copal Church, and almost as soon the Catholic Church.
If I should inculcate " fidelity to the marriage bed," it would
be said that it proceeded from resentment to General Hamilton, ^
and a malicious desire to hold up to posterity his libertinism.
Others would say that it is only a vainglorious ostentation of
my own continence. For among all the errors, follies, failings,
vices, and crimes, which have been so plentifully imputed to
me, I cannot recollect a single insinuation against me of any
amorous intrigue, or irregular or immoral connection with
woman, single or married, myself a bachelor or a married man.*
If I should recommend the sanctification of the sabbath, like
a divine, or even only a regular attendance on public worship,
as a means of moral instruction and social improvement, like a
philosopher or statesman, I should be charged with vain osten-
tation again, and a selfish desire to revive the remembrance of
my own punctuality in this respect ; for it is notorious enough
that I have been a church-going animal ^ for seventy-six years,
from the cradle. And this has been alleged as one proof of my
hypocrisy.
Fifty-three years ago I was fired with a zeal, amounting to
enthusiasm, against ardent spirits,^ the multiplication of taverns,
retailers, and dram-shops, and tippling houses. Grieved to the
heart to see the number of idlers, thieves, sots, and consumptive
patients made for the physicians, in those infamous seminaries,
I applied to the Court of Sessions, procured a committee of
inspection and inquiry, reduced the number of licensed houses,
&c. But I only acquired the reputation of a hypocrite and an
ambitious demagogue by it. The number of licensed houses
was soon reinstated ; drams, grog, and sotting were not dimi-
nished, and remain to this day as deplorable as ever. You may
* Note. August 31, 1811. I had forgot the story of the four English girls
■whom General Pinckney was employed to hire in England, two for me and two
for himself J. A.
1 " Recollect here your definition of a New England man, given to one of
your friends in Amsterdam. It was, ' He is a meeting-going animal.' " B. Rush
to J. A.
2 " Much may be said to discourage the use of ardent spirits, and to lessen the
number of taverns and grocery stores, both of which are sapping the virtue of
our country." B. Rush to J. A.
VOL. IX. 54
638 CORRESPONDENCE.
as well preach to the Indians against rum as to our people.
Little Turtle petitioned me to prohibit rum to be sold to his
nation, for a very good reason; because he said I had lost three
thousand of my Indian children in his nation in one year by it.
Sermons, moral discourses, philosophical dissertations, medi-
cal advice, are all lost upon this subject. Nothing but making
the commodity scarce and dear will have any effect; and your
repubhcan friend, and, I had almost said, mine, Jefferson, would
not permit rum or whiskey to be taxed.
If I should then in my will, my dying legacy, my posthumous
exhortation, call it what you will, recommend heavy, prohibi-
tory taxes upon spirituous liquors, which I believe to be the
only remedy against their deleterious qualities in society, every
one of your brother republicans and nine tenths of the federalists
would say that I was a canting Puritan, a profound hypocrite,
setting up standards of morality, frugality, economy, temperance,
simplicity, and sobriety, that I knew the age was incapable of.
U^ Funds and banks i I never approved, or was satisfied with our
-n funding system ; it was founded in no consistent principle; it
was contrived to enrich particular -individuals at the public
^-^P^.'^^^* ^"^ whole baiiking system I ever abhorred, I conti-
nue to abhor, and shall die abhorring.
But I am not an enemy to funding systems. They are abso-
lutely and indispensably necessary in the present state of the
world. An attempt to annihilate or prevent them would be as
romantic an adventure as any in Don Quixote or in Oberon.
A national bank of deposit I believe to be wise, just, prudent,
economical, and necessary. But every bank of discount, every
bank by which interest is to be paid or profit of any kind made
by the deponent, is downright corruption. It is taxing the
public for the benefit and profit of individuals ; it is worse than
old tenor, continental currency, or any other paper money.
Now, Sir, if I should talk in this strain, after I am dead, you
know the people of America would pronounce that I had died
mad.
My opinion is, that a circulating medium of gold and silver
only ought to be introduced and established ; that a national
1 " In exposing the evils of funding systems and banks, summon all the fire
of your genius, as it blazed forth on the 2d of July in the year 1776 upon the
floor of Congress." B. Rush to J. A.
CORRESPONDENCE. 639
bank of deposit only, with a branch in each State, should be
allowed; that every bank in the Union ought to be annihilated,
and every bank of discount prohibited to all eternity. Not one
farthing of profit should ever be allowed on any money deposited
in the bank. Now, my friend, if, in my posthumous sermon,
exhortation, advice, address, or whatever you may call it, I
should gravely deliver such a doctrine, nine tenths of republicans
as well as federalists will think that I ought to have been con-
signed to your tranquillizing chair rather than permitted to
write such extravagances. Franklin, Washington, Hamilton,
and all our disinterested patriots and heroes, it will be said, have
sanctioned paper money and banks, and who is this pedant and
bigot of a John Adams, who, from the ground, sounds the tocsin
against all our best men, when every body knows he never had
any thing in view but his private interest from his birth to his
death ?
Free schools, and all schools, colleges, academies and semi-
naries of learning,^ I can recommend from my heart ; but I dare
not say that a suffrage should never be permitted to a man who
cannot read and w^rite. What would become of the republic of
France, if the lives, fortunes, character, of twenty-four millions
and a half of men who can neither read nor write, should be at
the absolute disposal of five hundred thousand who can read?
I am not qualified to write such an address. The style should
be pure, elegant, eloquent, and pathetic in the highest degree.
It should be revised, corrected, obliterated, interpolated, amended,
transcribed twenty times, polished, refined, varnished, burnished.
To all these employments and exercises I am a total stranger.
To my sorrow, I have never copied, nor corrected, nor embel-
lished. I understand it not. I never could write declamations,
orations, or popular addresses.
If I could persuade my friend Rush, or my friend Jay, my
friend Trumbull, or my friend Humphreys, or perhaps my friend
Jefferson, to write such a thing for me, I know not why I might
not transcribe it, as Washington did so often. Borrowed elo-
quence, if it contains as good stuff, is as good as own eloquence.
The example you recollect of Caesar's will, is an awful warn^
1 " The benefits of free schools should not be overlooked. Indeed, suffrage,
in my opinion, should never be permitted to a man that could not write or read."
B. R. to J. A.
640 CORRESPONDENCE.
ing. Posthumous addresses may be left by Csesar as well as
Cato, Brutus, or Cicero, and will oftener, perhaps, be applauded,
and make deeper impressions ; establish empires easier than
restore republics ; promote tyranny sooner than liberty.
Your advice, ray friend, flows from the piety, benevolence,
and patriotism of your heart. I know of no man better quali-
fied to write such an address than yourself. If you will try your
hand at it and send me the result, I will consider it maturely.
I will not promise to adopt it as my own, but I may make a
better use of it than of any thing I could write.
My brother Cranch thinks you one of the best and one of the
profoundest Christians. He prays me to present you his best
compliments, and although he has not the honor nor the pleasure
of a personal acquaintance, has the highest esteem for your
character. He prays me to inclose a sermon, not for its own sake
as much as for the appendix, which he asks you to read and
give him your opinion of it. Will you show it to our friend
Wharton, and get his opinion of it ?
APPENDIX.
A.
(Page 346.)
The paper by Joseph Hawley, drawn up in accordance witli the intention
expressed in the text, was first printed in NUes's Principles and Acts of the
Revolution, with the following brief explanation from Mr. Adams : —
" This is the original paper that I read to Patrick Henry in the fall of the
year 1774, which produced his rapturous burst of approbation, and solemn
asseveration, ' I am of that man's mind.' "
*)
"Broken Hints,
To he communicated to the Committee of Congress for the Massachusetts.
We must fight, if we cannot otherwise rid ourselves of British taxation, all
revenues, and the constitution or form of government enacted for us by the
British parliament. It is evil against right — utterly intolerable to every man
who has any idea or feeling of right or liberty.
It is easy to demonstrate, that the regulation act will soon annihilate every
thing of value in the charter, introduce perfect despotism, and render the House
of Representatives a mere form and ministerial engine.
It is now or never, that we must assert our liberty. Twenty years will make
the number of tories on this continent equal to the number of whigs. They
who shall be born will not have any idea of a free government.
It will necessarily be a question, whether the new government of this pro-
vince shall be suffered to take place at all, or whether it shall be immediately
withstood and resisted.
A most important question this — I humbly conceive it not best, forcibly or
wholly to resist it immediately.
There is not heat enough yet for battle. Constant, and a sort of negative
resistance of government, will increase the heat and blow the fire. There is
not mihtary skill enough. That is improving, and must be encouraged and
improved, but wiU daily increase.
Fight we must finally, unless Britain retreats.
But it is of Infinite consequence that victory be the end and Issue of hos-
tilities. If we get to fighting before necessary dispositions are made for it, we
shall be conquered, and all will be lost forever.
A certain clear plan, for a constant, adequate, and lasting supply of arms and
mihtary stores, must be devised and fully contemplated. This is the main
54 * 0 2
642 APPENDIX.
thing. This, I think, ought to be a capital branch of the business of Congress —
to wit ; to devise and settle such a plan ; at least, clearly to investigate how
such supplies can be extensively had in case of need. While this is eflecting —
to wit ; while the continent is providing themselves with arms and military
stores, and establishing a method for a sure and unfailing and constant supply,
i conceive we had best to negotiate with Britain. If she Avill cede our rights
and restore our liberties, all is well — every good man will rejoice ; if she will
not agree to relinquish and abohsh all American revenues, under every pretence
and name, and all pretensions to order and regulate our internal i^olicy and
constitution — then, if we have got any constant and sufficient supply of military
stores, it will be time to take to arms. I cannot quit this head. It ought to be
immediately and most seriously attended to. It cannot be any other than mad-
ness to commence hostilities before we have established resources on a sure plan
for certain and effectual military supplies. Men, in that case, will not be wanting.
But what considerate man will ever consent to take arms and go to war,
where he has no reasonable assurance but that all must be given over, and he
fall a prey to the enemy, for want of military stores and ammunition, in a few
weeks ?
Either an effectual non-consumption agreement or resistance of the new
government will bring on hostihties very soon.
1. As to a non-consumption agreement, it appears to me that it ought to be
taken for certain truth, that no plan of importation or consumption of tea, Bri-
tish goods in general, or enumerated articles, which is to rest and depend on the
virtue of all the individuals, will succeed ; but must certainfy prove abortive.
The ministry may justly call such a plan futile ; futile it will turn out. A
plan of that sort may safely rest and be founded on the virtue of the majority ;
but then the majority, by the plan, must be directed to control the niinority,
which implies force. The plan, therefore, must direct and jDrescribe how that
force shall be exercised.
Those, again, who exercise that force, under the direction and by order of
the majority, must by that majority be defended and indemnified.
Dispositions must therefore necessarily be made to resist or overcome that
force which will be brought against you, which avUI directly produce war and
bloodshed.
From thence it follows, that any other non-consumption or non-importation
plan, which is not perfectly futile and ridiculous, implies hostilities and war.
2. As to the resistance of the new government, that also imjjlies war; for, in
order to resist and prevent the effect of the new government, it is indispensably
necessary that the charter government, or some other, must be maintained,
constitutionally exercised and supported.
The people will have some government or other; they will be drawn in by a
seeming mUd and just administration, which will last awhile. Legislation and
executive justice must go on in some form or other, and we may depend on it
they will ; therefore the new government will take effect until the old is restored.
The old cannot be restored until the council take on them the adminlsti-ation,
call assemblies, constitute courts, make sherifis, &c. The council will not
attempt this without good assurance of protection. This protection cannot be
given without hostilities.
APPENmX. 643
Our salvation depends^ upon an established perscA'ering union of the colonies.
The tools of administration are using every device and effort to destroy that
union, and they will certainly continue so to do.
Thereupon all possible devices and endeavors must be used to establish, im-
prove, brighten, and maintain such union.
Every grievance of any one colony must be held and considered by the whole
as a grievance to the whole, and must operate on the whole as a gi-ievance to
the whole. Tiiis will be a difficult matter to effect, but it must be done.
Qujere, therefore, whether it is not absolutely necessary that some plan be
settled for a continuation of congresses ? But here we must be aware that
congresses will soon be declared and enacted by parliament to be high treason.
Is the India company to be compensated or not ?
If to be compensated, each colony to pay the particular damage she has done,
or is an average to be made on the continent ?
The destruction of the tea was not unjust ; therefore to what good purpose is
the tea to be paid for, unless we are assured that, by so doing, our rights will be
restored and peace obtained ?
What future measures is the continent to preserve with regard to imported
dutied tea, whether it comes as East India property or otherwise, under the
pretence and lie that the tea is imported from Holland, and the goods imported
before a certain given day ? Dutied tea will be imported and consumed, goods
continue to be imported, your non-importation agreement eluded, rendered
contemjitible and ridiculous, unless all teas used, and aU goods, are taken into
some public custody which will be inviolably faithful."
END OF VOLUME IX.
<mi r
»;> >y f w5w5w
■A'6 : >w>ins>>»{>rw>
.;,>;
i>j>ta
yyj